A collaborative story written during a creative writing workshop between the Forest Online and Wild Forest and Fauna’s Future Leaders program. Written by Vanessa, Sami, Ian, and Lua.

Rose sat in the boat, feeling the waves of the Las Piedras river roll off of the side of her boat, causing it to sway gently on the water. She tilted her head back, smelling the fresh breeze. Rose had never been to the jungle before, and the fresh oxygen that filled her lungs was intoxicating.

The ground was earthy and muddy, her boots slipped back slightly with every step that she climbed. Rose’s eyes took in the sights and her fingers absorbed each texture that they encountered. She had read a little bit about the rainforest before coming, and she practiced identifying the trees as trudged thought the mud. A walking palm, which could move two to three meters over the course of hundreds of years, on her right. A sheep frog “baa’d” on her left, expanding its navy belly rhythmically.

Rose was curious about the rainforest, and had read about the various birds in the forest. She wanted to see macaws. She heard of a claylick nearby, and walked the claylick, striding though the green ferns and the lush grasses. She arrived, and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the birds. She sweat heavily, because she had never experienced humidity like this before—but the work was worth it to see the hundred of red birds eating the clay next to her.

As she was watching the birds get their daily minerals, she felt a sharp pain in her leg. She cried, and the macaws flew away. As Rose fell to the ground, she saw the body of a fer-de-lance slither away—“One of the most venomous snakes in the jungle,” she thought. As a she lay, she called for help on her satellite phone.

As she lay, she had a revelation: there is no set order on this planet. The trees and the earth and the animals have been in the Las Piedras for so much longer than herself, even her mother or her grandmother or her ancestors who lived off of the forest. She entered the forest as a visitor, and therefore entered the order of life. There is no set order, and anyone can be a part of the cycle of the jungle. “Respect for the forest—not just for its beauty, but its power is necessary…” Rose thought to herself, as she lay waiting.

Spanish version coming soon