Legend of the Water Lily
By Ana Graça
This story is set among Indigenous tribes in the Amazon, in the north of Brazil. They believed that the moon was a goddess, a female deity. She would come down to earth and attract and kiss young girls, choosing some of them to become stars. That is how stars were born. This is the context of the story.
There is one Indigenous girl. She is the daughter of the leader, so she can be seen as a princess. Her name is Jaci, and she is in love with the moon. She wants to become a star. She believes the story is real and that one day the moon will come for her and turn her into a star. She keeps waiting. Everyone tells her that this is only a story, that it will not happen. One night, she goes to a lake. She sees the reflection of the moon in the water and believes the moon has finally come to take her. She reaches for it and drowns. The moon is moved by her love and devotion. She decides to turn her into a star, but a different kind of star. She becomes a river star — the flower of the water lily. This is how the water lily, often called the stars of the river, came to be.
