Portrait of the Morning

The air vibrates with a loud buzz, like a giant mosquito is circling my head, searching for a landing spot the way police helicopters search for runners back home. There's a banana flower arching into its life-giving trunk, its laden upper stem spiked with small green fruits, the top uppermost section sprayed with the first rays of morning light. A pink and mauve pineapple, bursting with teenage hope, lifts its proud head between the matured leaves of the plant, the stalks a green mane falling away from the center in reverential duty.

I take a sip from the mug warming my palms and savor a mouthful of nes-lo*, easy on the lo, with a sprinkling of masala spice.**

The petai tree waves its thin fern arms slowly above the dense shaded mass, dancing back and forth to a silent morning rave. Wood cracks between my feet, sending vibrations with a loud snap up my calves. Rocks click softly down the weathered brown slope.

An eggplant climbs undetectably, cautiously out of its maternal flower, purpling beneath the gaze of the long bean tentacles that dangle, sultrily, from the thin metal rafts above. A bird, too far away to be carefully seen, alights on a branch, singing gustily into the coming day.

A butterfly, black with green-centered wings, large and gliding in its traversing, flits past.

The long, thin leaves of an overgrown weed ache into the center of the path. A fly with a red head and a wingspan the length of a thumb's nail pauses near a drop of dew. Three more join it, making a v-formation reminiscent of birds or fighter-jets. Warriors of the forest.

Popo and Pupu, my two favorite dogs of the bunch of seven, roll over each other down the rocky driveway, barking and growling into each other's oversized triangle ears.

The flies lift off and disappear into the morning air, the only give-away of their presence the loud, persistent buzz of their flapping external engines.


*A mix of Nescafé instant coffee (Malaysia's second caffeine staple after a creamy black tea drink called teh tarik) and Milo, a malted chocolate beverage made from powder.
**Masala spices are used in Indian masala tea.