my $connection;

while(1) {

    # the connect method either returns a valid connection object or undef, ERR_MSG
    print "Trying to connect.....";
    ($connection, my $error) = connect();

    if ( $connection ) {
        print "Connected OK!\n";
      last;
    }
    else {
        print "Connect failed error: $error, retry in 5 sec.\n";
        sleep 5;
    }
}

# now do stuff with your $connection