Diplomacy, Haiku, and the magic of Madagascar

globalbihari August 16, 2020 2 min read

A Madagascar Baobab tree that has been turned into a water storage tank!

[the_ad_placement id=”adsense-in-feed”]

Poet and Ambassador Abhay K. introduces you to unique flora and fauna of Madagascar through his photographs and haiku…

Photos and text: Abhay K.

Indian Ambassador in Madagascar Abhay K. with the first ever book of Indian poems in Malagasy language

Madagascar’s flora and fauna is unique. No, wonder it is known as the 8th continent. Over hundred species of lemurs are only found in Madagascar. Madagascar is also home to a large number of species found nowhere else on the planet which includes almost all its reptile and amphibian species, half of its birds, several orchid species, seven species of baobabs among others. It all happened because of Madagascar’s geographic isolation.

When I arrived in Madagascar in March 2019, I had not thought in my wildest imagination that I would start writing haiku here. I began with usual length poems but soon felt that I was not able to capture and express the multiple enlightenments taking place within me while waking up with birdsong, looking at mynahs, hoopoes, black Vasa parrots, red fodies, yellow wagtails, green geckos, colour changing chameleons, butterflies and dragonflies of all possible colours, bees sucking nectar from flowers, making beehives, lying on the grass upside down in headstand yogic pose and looking at the sky, travelling across Madagascar listening to the calls of Indri-Indri, the largest of the surviving lemurs and critically endangered, watching silky Sifakas dance, seeing turtles swimming freely in the emerald sea and watch sunset at the alley of Baobabs and just wandering around like a fakir following the tradition of Basho, Buson and Issa, though in another island and in another space-time.

[the_ad_placement id=”content-placement-after-3rd-paragraph”]