In 1968, St. Martin became a second home for Romare Bearden and his wife Nanette, who was native to the island. He insisted that the Caribbean was the source of much of his creation during this later stage of life. "Art will go where the energy is. I find a great deal of energy in the Caribbean. . . . It's like a volcano there; there's something unfinished underneath that still smolders."

In Caribbean Song, we see elements of this creative, volcanic energy clearly illustrated in the use of fiery reds in the distant mountain tops of a tropical paradise. The paint handling is expressive rather than literal, and the collage elements (birds and the figure at water’s edge) create the scale of the scene. A luminous aqua blue at the foreground becomes an intimate lagoon in which a stork stalks its prey while a woman dips her toe in the calm, inviting water. The whole scene is pushed forward and compressed by the cool blue of the deep sea at the upper right. While viewing this watercolor/collage, one feels that everything is right in the world and “at last, my love has come along, my lonely days are over and life is like a song.”