Wave goodbye

"I have never seen an ocean like this. It is so clean." she says. Her english is very accented, but good. "Why is it green?" I explain that the water here is good for algea, and ask her what color the ocean is in Korea. "It is dark blue, very dark blue. And we don't have waves like this." The waves come surging up the sand, swirling it into grey and buff patterns. They slam into us, often only up to our ankles, other times up to our chests. Some are so strong, we have to skip backwards to keep our balance. As they pause at the top of the beach to catch their breath we laugh and shriek. Then they come racing back down to crash into their incoming friends, snatching thousands of finite grains from under our feet on the way. "I like the ocean here." she whispers sadly to the exuberant emerald water she will never see again.