Random Act of Smile

Some time ago Gilles sent me a postcard from Cape Verde. Today, when I opened my mailbox, I saw an envelope from Gilles again, but I had no idea why was he sending me postcards again.

I was really surprised when I saw that he had sent me a map and a flag card from Cape Verde too. As I love map and flag cards, this envelope made my day.

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 km off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 sq km, are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. Due to the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green, as the country's name suggests (verde is Portuguese for "green"). The name of the country stems instead from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast.

The country has an estimated population of over 500,000, with its capital city (Praia), accounting for the majority of its citizens. Politically, the country is a very stable democracy, with notable economic growth and improvements of living conditions, despite its lack of natural resources, and has garnered International recognition by other countries and international organizations, which often provide development aid. Since 2007, Cape Verde has been classified as a developing nation. (source)

The national Flag of Cape Verde was adopted on September 22, 1992, replacing the flag adopted during Cape Verdean independence, fought for with Guinea-Bissau, another former Portuguese colony on mainland West Africa.

The 10 stars on the flag represent the main islands of the nation (a chain of islands off the coast of West Africa). The blue represents the ocean and the sky. The band of white and red represents the road toward the construction of the nation, and the colours stand for peace (white) and effort (red). The yellow colour, circular formation of the stars, and dark blue field show similarity to the flag of the European Union. (source) Thank you so much Gilles! :)