Of course, the desert island experience affects every castaway differently, as these movies on video -- filled with sheltering palms, powdery sand and colorful flora and fauna -- clearly show.
Then there are Sri Lanka's famed beaches, crescent-shaped coves of white sand framed by colorful bungalows and bamboo groves.
Today, the area's beaches — wide expanses of soft tan sand, lined with colorful wooden cabins and shacks renting beach umbrellas and lounge chairs — are still the main draw for summer visitors, many from neighboring Germany, who spend days digging holes in the sand, sunning themselves and walking dune paths carpeted with crushed seashells.
If you do, you'll miss the men in multicolored turbans peeping through the yellow sand, women in colorful saris herding sheep, brothers singing traditional songs on top of moving cars, peacocks plucking for seeds while snakes slink into the desert, and the moon setting as you sip a glass of wine in the dunes.
If you'd like, colorful sand is always adds more flare!
As I continue to do research, I will keep in mind that the mandala's shifting and colorful sands can help us put ecology's complex issues in perspective.
Fill them with colorful craft sand and display them or make a mobile.
Put the colored sand in salt shakers, and let your child shake out the sand onto the sticky contact paper to create a colorful picture.
Like other events hosted by the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monks will create a colorful and detailed sand mandala, or mural, that will be swept away to illustrate the impermanence of life.
I had been impressed with his choreography in 1992 and 1998 at a French dance festival, the Lyon Dance Biennial, in which his references ranged from the yellow sands of timeless deserts to the colorful traditions of India.
