Outside the city limits and on the outskirts of some slums lay the forest of pedroso.
In it´s main area are playgrounds a concrete walking track and a football field.
The entire driveway is lit up during the day by magnificent flowering trees that keep their charm for months.
The perfume of the undergrowth is just as pleasant.
However there is a broken gondula with it´s line still attached and abandoned buildings at the base and over the hill. Like some bloodstained turtle shell on a fishing line.
There are several muddy lagoons that poor children bathe in during the summer.
On the first entry there are two lagoons and the area looks almost abandoned.
It´s there I went seeking peace one afternoon.
Walking down the hill with my hound out of the city limits, rubbish stuck to the side of the forest line like it was growing there by itself. Cool shades and sudden slopes all the way to the bottom. The cracked footpath leapt up in pieces to allow the roots of some courageous tree inching closer to the road.
The grass freshly cut getting a yellow base. Walking down I came across a rubbish recycler. Usually an extremely poor man or woman who pick up rubbish like cardboard and bottles to bring to a recycling plant where they are paid a tiny sum for their great labours in cleaning the city. I looked into his eyes like I do to everyone and i saw, he knew I was a foreigner.
I carried on down hill where the shade and the sun met at the side of the road. Into the shade and then, into the sun, if I was travelling at a speed it would have been a natural strobelight.
As I approached the first entry surrounded by welcoming palmtrees; My dog became restless. I crossed a bridge over the first pond that seemed clean and full of fish. My dog took himself a quick bath in the weedy tangled edges of the pond. Then i went around the lake to find somewhere relaxing to sit there was a place next to bolder with full sunshine. I sat and rested and cleared my mind.
As i was in my tranquil state i had not heard the approaching father and son with their three sausage dogs. My hound puppins had though, one second after the first bark i opened my eyes to see my dog with a sausage dog in it mouth. So i ran and fell and tackled my dog freeing the screeching sausage dog. And looking like a moron infront of the man and his child.
I thought this wont do I must go further into the forest, if I don´t every man and his dog will disturb my peace.
So I took off again heading towards the trees past alittle soccer field, picking up a little rubbish along the way. The locals stretching for their game of football glared at me as if i was doing something wrong. Maybe i was. I probably appeared as arrogant, know it all, do-gooder. So cliche so geaky so fussy but so what?
And as i entered the narrow pathway into the forest i knew apart from my dog i was totally alone!
My dog seemed alittle more cautious now, on both sides of the track branch leaves and grass would touch me. I didn´t mind too much apart from the odd encounter with one of the larger yellow and black brazilian globe spiders. The track narrowed and widened at random. About 100 metres into the track, it became wet and muddy under foot the water seemed like it had been sitting there along time because the thick green algae had taken up most of the puddles. As the track veered to the right and opened up the ground became drier.
Suddenly i came across a big multicoloured fluttering ball of butterflies weaving in and out of each other, it just didn´t look real! White and yellow and black and blue hovering above some moist patch of mud. It was awe inspiring. Or it could have just been mating season.
So the path began to rise. Nevertheless I continued up the path noticing a few nice fruit trees on both sides of it. There were lemon trees and guava trees. A few natural herbs, it felt like paradise. And i had my wish i was completely alone.
As i came to the peak of the path it all opened up as if a great carpark surrounded by brush and trees.
In the middle of the clearing was a fallen concrete phoneline post. My dog was acting anxious and wanted me to turn back, i however was quite happy and tied my dog to a nearby tree. As i lay down on the post i tried to think of nice things and relax myself. Several minutes passed and the wind changed. My dog was wining in low tones now. I woke from my daydreams with a cold shiver, i felt extremely awake.
I noticed there were seven shapes on the stony ground surrounding me, they looked like stains though they could have easily been the shadows of men.
I swore that i didn´t notice them on the way in and i was a little surprised.
There was also no more bird noises. I looked at my dog and lay back down wondering.
I tried to relax again and closed my eyes and put my head in the wind.
It felt good. Then as i opened my eyes the seven shapes were not there anymore and i had a strange sensation in my head.
As I walked back down the path out of the forest I had the most uneasy feeling i was being watched and it didn´t feel like people.
Even though i didn´t feel so sure about that place i will go back one day because a forest is kind of like a sanctuary to me. A church where I go on my own. Instead of some preachers sermon i have wind and the sound the leaves make in it, the birdsong and the various noisy insects.
So most of you won´t even think about going into the forest alone anyway, people love to say they love nature. But few try to form a real bond with their local forests.
Some actually hate the forest, maybe some of the forests hate us too.
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