Jungle Green

I miss the coolness of forest cover whenever I'm in Kuching. Here at my eco-farm in Bintulu, I would take the first opportunity to walk under its dense canopy to observe in greater details its plant life or wildlife which I missed or fail to observe before. Since the forest cover is literally a teeming arena of life, an hour spent is like marvelling at the wonders of Mother Nature waiting to be discovered . The above picture is taken at a vegetation island about 100 meters from my chalet.

A solitary clump of 'Palas' or Licuala spinosa, over topping a meter high above me.

The Licuala Palm ( Licuala spinosa) grows naturally at many undisturbed vegetation islands in my farm. The locals here generally refer to the liacuala palm as 'Palas' and its leaves are thatched for mats or roofing. Often the leaves are used to wrap food. I observe that the licualas are solitary palms and are found as scattered individuals among the forest undergrowth. They grow robust under dense cover and filtered light. Here the ideal conditions of growth are almost guaranteed by high humidity, thick humus and rotten vegetative matter teeming with micro-organisms. Because of these specifics, I find that planting the licualas in pots a very tough if not an almost impossible mission. However I have increasingly found its leaves to be very useful in floral arrangement.

Back from the short jungle walk this morning I brought home a stalk of the licuala palm leaf.

The deep green licuala leaves looked very fresh and alive. To accentuate the feeling of movement to the composition, I cut the leaf blades in staggered formation. To provide fragrance to the composition I selected the frangipani or plumeria flowers ( Plumeria obtusa) . Two flowering stalks will keep my study room scented for at least three days or more when other closed buds take their time to open up to the world. While green colour is for growth, white and scented is for spirituality.