When I need to get my head around scenery I do an exercise where I write a short story about the surroundings. I pretend I'm a ghost who's just woken up in this unfamiliar place. What do I see, hear, feels, smell (no, I'm not planning on tasting things in a strange landscape)? So, what does this jungle look like:
"Green everywhere. Trees taller than the largest city building. You can't even see the shape and size of the leaves, just a green sky with sun coloured stars. Large sheets of decaying leaves lay about in heaps of damp peat that reeks of rain and nascent soil. The tree roots grow like doorways creating palaces for beasts and spiders and water reserves. Jaggy loops pop up here and there reminding you not to spend too much time looking up.
Below the dense canopy there is space between tree trunks. Coiled vines hang between them like a network of wires, the trees talking to one another telling the news of the day.
Copses of smaller (twice the height of a person) hedge like trees grow thickly, with small dark green leaves and spines. Tiny birds flit between the branches - nest colonies like tower blocks, rival gangs fighting out in the open - carnivorous monkeys pick up the fallen wounded and feast. They howl in triumph as they collect the spoils of avian warfare.
A large plant spire rises in the distance, six metres high. The putrid stench reaches you from 1,000 paces. It is read and violent looking, swarming insects create traffic crawling in and out of the pucker at the top. When it blooms the jungle will be a graveyard. Towards its base the bud fades and sickly yellow-green flaps peel away, the years of the plant counted in discarded blooms - it's ancient. It reaches the ground in an explosion of wild twisting roots and large propeller shaped leaves.
Away, there is the soft cheep of frogs and the squawk and screech of birds invisibly high in the trees. The sound of running water is missed - there are no rivers here. But there are murky bogs that are feeding-grounds for reptiles, insects and small snuffling mammals that dig about for larvae - Pogos. They have small round bodies covered in wirey brown hair with green reticulated stripes. Their short legs barely hold them away from the ground. From their fat, smushed faces slinks a thick prehensile snout that swashes about in the mud, all the while their tiny greenish ears dart about from atop their head probing their surroundings for trouble.
Large plants crowd the jungle floor with leaves large enough for a child to lay on. They sweep the air on long stalks. Thin vines grow symbiotically using the leaves to send out pollen from their large pink flowers. On the petals there are pink frogs the size of a thumbnail. There is a barely visible diamond on their back traced with a thin line of brown. They hop away onto a leaf and their colour gently shifts to green. These are the edible male Warri Cane. On tree trunks sit the larger female counter parts, glowing with pride. Their toxic brown bodies boast a vicious yellow diamond with a blue iris - the eyes of the jungle."
Enjoy!
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| A quick sketch of some of the flora and fauna |
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