on borneo. 

The sun dipped below the canopy, casting long shadows across the forest floor. There I stood with my feet firmly planted in the ground. The towering dipterocarp trees loomed above — a testament to the footprint of Pliocene — an ancestral place I’d known long before my arrival. I found myself alone in the rainforest for the first time, surrounded by a rare symphony of endemic birds, primates and reptiles.

Borneo was a place of contradictions. It was the perfect coexistence of chaos and stillness. And I, a mere outsider, was privileged to be an observer in a world ruled by its own design.

When the darkness descended, I felt a sense of urgency to navigate back to main road. Suddenly, a child appeared on my exit route and motioned to follow. Without hesitation, I obliged.

Trailing his steps down a narrow path into another part of the forest, we approached a patch of wild bamboo and he pointed up. Swinging playfully from the bamboo stalks were three juvenile orangutans, enjoying the last bit of light before they were called home.

In that moment, as the child and I silently observed these magnificent apes in their natural habitat, the outside world disappeared. The rainforest had invited us in and I sealed my fate. I made a promise to the land to always protect and fight for it. 

And that's how Borneo changed the trajectory of my entire life.