I’ve been in the Amazon for a few days. Probably more than the majority of my readers, but much less than I would like. Anyway, enough time to be fascinated by that natural beauty.
 
The immense forest makes us feel so small: from the magnificent bearing of the great species, to the delicate beauty of the small tropical flower, including a huge number of plants which we are only used to seeing in vases here in Europe, but which in that region appear before us as big trees or bushes.
 
It’s an immense forest: when we fly over it, it looks like a huge green carpet and when we enter it, we find it difficult to move because of its dense vegetation.
 
But if I was fascinated by the water-lily, the bird-of-paradise and many other plants, I was no less delighted by the way the vegetable kingdom co-exists with the water.
 
It’s so beautiful to enter the forest through one of the many tributaries, in a small sleek canoe, guided by an Indian...
 
I was impressed by the enormous amount of dark reddish water carried by the river Negro. I can never forget the phenomenon of the meeting waters: for several quilometres the dark water from the river Negro runs side by side with the muddy water from the river Solimões, without mixing.
Yet, if I was delighted with the Amazon River and its tributary streams, I was also touched by the fauna of the region.
 
From the typical and colourful birds – such as macaws and toucans – to the multiple species of monkeys, including the amazing reptiles. It’s very pleasant to have breakfast while listening to the birds, but the moments when we saw the crocodiles in their own habitat are also unforgetable, as was one of my son’s courage when  he held a boa constrictor with the help of a “caboclo”.
 
Fascinated with all  these natural beauties, it was however the human being who impressed me the most. At least it was him who made me think about these Amazonian experiences afterwards.
I met real Indians who lived in huts built on a kind of raft that were floating on those tributaries that entered the Amazon forest. I saw half-naked men hunting for fish with bow and arrow, and women, also half-naked, preparing, in a primitive way, food for their family.
 
In Manaus, I’ve watched the “caboclos” trading – everything from Indian flutes to the Japanese household appliances – in big stores, in shops, in street stalls and in the street without a stall.
I met emigrants from Portugal and from other European countries, as well as their descendents, working in white-collar jobs, owning small or medium enterprises or representing big multinational corporations.
 
I’ve meditated upon the different experiences Man faces on Earth. With my shirt stuck to my body and sweat pouring down my face, I thought, if I had been born under these circumstances - a suffocating 45o, I would be as slow as the majority of the natives. I imagined how happy I would feel to find a place lying on a net when I travelled aboard one of those motor boats, between Itacoatiara and Urucurituba, in which most people stand for hours during the trip.
 
The influence of the environment on us is actually very big. Those men and women, whose look and habits differ from mine, are just like me in essence. I saw them materially and culturally as distant from me, but spiritually I feel they are like me and other Europeans.
 
I figured that there are also good and bad people there. People capable of cheating, hurting and killing their fellow man. And people capable of smiling at us, helping us without any self-interest and giving us a small gift.
 
I got the sensation that most people I knew were peaceful and had little ambition. This may be why the gold from Serra Pelada or the oil from the Amazon bay are rarely referred to. This may also be why so many precious stones are carried around  wrapped in newspapers or in a piece of old cloth.
It occurred to me that the Indian population from South America didn’t show preponderant warlike tendencies when the first European arrived there – saying they were spreading Christ’s message – and tried to enslave them. However, they have never accepted slavery. In certain cases they chose to die instead.
 
I thought over the present situation, certain external entities are trying to interfere in the present and future of that region, saying they are defending the environmental balance. I asked myself if defending big green spaces or creating them shouldn’t also be done in other parts of this planet. I questioned if, behind these appearances, it isn’t an attempt to exploit the immense Amazon wealth.
I wished – and wish – that the Amazon people can find appropriate solutions for the potential development of the region, preserving the so-called environmental balance of that beautiful landscape; refusing to be slave to other people’s ideas and interests, but also avoiding the “death” of the biggest green space on this planet.
 
 

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