...of the lake of life

What have I come here for? thinks Geoffroy, and can find no answer. Because of the tiredness, the burning of this sun deep within his body, all reason has blurred. All that matters is to go on, to follow Okawho into this labyrinth.
Shortly before dawn Geoffroy and Okawho arrive in Ite Brinyan. They have followed the narrow stream all day, hacking their way through the barrier of trees, crossing over the chaos of rocks along what was often no more than a corridor through the forest; suddenly it opens out, like a cave transformed into an immense subterranean hall. They stand before a lake which reflects the color of the sky.
Okawho has stopped on a rock. On his face there is an expression that Geoffroy has never seen on anyone's face. On a mask, perhaps - something hard and superhuman, the eyes emptied of all expression by thin circles drawn around them, the pupils dilated.
There is no sign of life either in the water or in the forest surrounding the lake. The silence is so great that Geoffroy thinks he can hear the sound of blood in his arteries.

[Onitsha, Le Clézio, J. M. G.]