(Keoneloa Beach/aka Shipwreck Beach, Kauai)

Every big leap entails a huge risk,
but the literal ones have us gasping
as we watch young people hurling
themselves off a golden cliff
into the sea some 40 feet below.

Still, we walk up top to see the view—
not least the turquoise and royal blue
water where ginormous honu swim,
doing their finest rock imitations,
flippering effortlessly in the surf
to nibble on limu on the real rocks
hugging the ocean floor.

There they are, the brown saucers
huge even from four stories up,
and we smile, our day made.

A young woman hugs the edge,
deciding whether to take the leap
as her boyfriend in the water calls up
encouragement from below.

Don’t do it! I want to say. Never take
a leap for someone else—only if
everything in you insists that you
must leap and your heart leads you to.
Otherwise, stay put.

As she debates, two young men
come up barefoot, clearly ready to
make the jump—college kids, if I’ve
ever seen them. Vacationing from
Utah, they tell us later. They seem
ready, confident but not cocky.

We offer to watch their fanny pack
cradling their phones while they’re
gone; they grin and thank us,
move to the edge. Logan stands,
back to the water, makes a graceful
backward arc into the water.
Preston says, “I’m a jumper,”
and leaps, arms in the air.

Both land safely, wave happily
as they bob in the swells,
Preston calling, “Turtle! A huge
turtle!” as one of the larger honu
swims near. We laugh. They can
grow up to five feet long and live
some 80 years—

as one of us at the top of the cliff
has done in his eight decades
on the planet. Together we gaze
at the big fellow in the water,
wish him an equally long life—
with no leapers landing on him—
and all the limu he can eat,
easily found.

•••

• honu: Hawaiian green sea turtle

• limu: seaweed in Hawaiian