Orangutangs

Saving the Orangutang, from the diary of explorer and naturalist Mark Penner

Garden of Eden/Borneo

The long call full of power majesty, 

confidence,

mastery,

crickets sound in all direction,

the rasp of earth on the jungle floor

feet firmly anchored

looking up at obscene angles to

verdun canopy

lush, thick, infinite,

a clatter of a diesel from a distant klotok

on a winding muddy river

passing Nipa Palms in the humid

thick air,

the endless cicada buzz long buried,

swarm of endless weaver ants

like termites, a delicacy

the pensive fruit stare into the night,

the texture of a singular leaf,

building a nest with many

the sound of a song bird,

the hidden treasure of the neesia

a small leathery finger coyly entends

a messenger of friendship

high and safe from boar and snake,

impish brown eyes have seen 

the poacher’s evil

as habitat is destroyed,

vocalizations:

the kiss squeak, grump and lark,

of the lone male orangutan,

sunlight falls with a gentle touch, 

life abundant

the pagan shaman’s soul

the sodden passion

of the monsoon’s insanity.

Mark Penner 

Journal Entry May 1976

“After spending many hours of observation in the monotonous heat of the rain forest with the orangutans near Camp Fossey  I have grown a kindered feeling for the ‘noble savage’ the same heart which beats within us all. My world has been tilted in a new direction.  I am not the same person as when I first entered this vast jungle six months ago.