Diamond Rivers

(via The Diamond World, 1981) David Koskoff writes:

In Diamond Rivers (1977), an educational film produced for television by Bill Benenson, one old-timer, one of the last one-man Brazilian diamond diggers, tells about himself and what impels him and small diggers everywhere:

'I think I was born looking for diamonds. My father was a prospector and he died without having anything. And I, as old as I am, I don’t have anything either. But I have never stopped looking. Not for long, anyway. Why do I do it? Because I like it, and it is what I know best. If I was lucky, when I went to town and got money I would buy good clothes, a good hat, good boots, a good revolver to put in my belt, and then I would go party. Beer, wine, cognac, and sing and dance and party some more, and then, when the money was gone, I would come back to the river and look for more. Where is the prospector who invests his money, buys land or a house? They do not exist, I tell you. He is a man without future, only living for the day...There were some good days...'

How true! It's sad, but that's the way it is.