The symbol that remains engraved forever and is a magnificent metaphor for time
Just a week ago, Roland Garros honored Rafa Nadal with an event on Center Court. One of the moments that brought the tennis player to tears was when Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation, unveiled a beautiful commemorative plaque. It connected with the spirit of tennis, with the idea of legacy, and with the iconic value of the championship's clay court. On one side of the court, Moretton swept the sand, revealing Rafa Nadal's footprint on a thin white cement slab. Not the shape of a bare foot or the bas-relief of a sneaker. Just the imperfect trace left by the sudden stop of a drop shot. A furrow that appeals to dynamism, sacrifice, and the idea of play and effort as a legacy.
The mark of a footprint is as simple as it is transcendent. Neil Armstrong was the first to set foot on the Moon in July 1969, and one of the most iconic photos of that Apollo 11 mission is the image of his boot print in the fine dust of the satellite's surface. It has often been interpreted as an image of the conquest of space, that first step on the Moon that must have been so grand for humanity. Some experts have clarified its origin. Buzz Aldrin, who was the second to disembark the lunar module, stepped in the footprint left by his companion Armstrong. The footprint that has come to light is said to be Aldrin's.
Other less famous marks are those in some doorways of Barcelona's Raval neighborhood. The flagstones worn by the heels of shoes are a reminder of the prostitutes who stood there, waiting for clients. Holes that tell part of a neighborhood's memory.
In a conversation with Umberto Eco, the playwright Jean-Claude Carrière mentioned that in an auction house catalog he found a photograph of a supposed inscribed footprint of Buddha. In ancient Indian art, the Budhapada—the foot of the enlightened one—was a symbol evoking Buddha's presence on earth. As he walked, he taught. Carrière interpreted it as a printing press before the printing press. These images, also found on rocks and in temples, are used as spiritual guides and to mark the path for followers.
The oldest human footprints in the world were found in Laetoli, Tanzania, and are 3.66 million years old. Engraved in volcanic ash, they are exceptional evidence of early human bipedalism. They are traces of several individuals that have helped experts speculate about the social structures of that time. More recent, but equally exciting, are the fossilized footprints discovered in the White Sands Desert in New Mexico. It's the largest gypsum dune on the planet, and the footprints are 20,000 years old. They stretch for more than a mile and a half and show a young person, likely a woman, walking barefoot in the mud while carrying a baby on her shoulders. Analysis reveals details such as slips or the tiny footprints the creature occasionally left on the ground. Beyond the archaeological evidence of our ancestors, they are indicators of an emotional imprint. The vestiges of affection and tenderness. Perhaps the origin of what we now call humanity.
On the roof of an old farmhouse, on a clay slab, there is a tile with a cat's paw. On another, there is the trace of a bird's hopping. The beasts walked over it before the soft ones were put in the oven, more than 100 years ago. And their tiny footprints are an accidental witness to other lives. A fleeting, inconsequential moment that has been forever recorded and is a magnificent metaphor for time.