In the jungle safari of Chitwan, I never saw this.
Instead, I was stricken by the silence quivering with life, gliding effortlessly atop the polished smooth river in a mist that seeped onto the shores. The mist flew as a flock in harmony, skidding across the occasional waves and ripples in the virescent waters. The occasional haunting cry of a bird high above the mist and steady gurgle of the stick plunging into the water to push us forward only served to entrance us into a hush that swelled into the jungle far beyond the shores we sailed past. We drifted through the languid morning in a hollowed trunk that bore the scars of tried-and-true trips while nonetheless teetering as a scrawny wet chunk of wood. At shallow turns the water tumbled on top of the smoothed rocks and pebbles in giddy white delight. Here and there we saw a peacock amid the tall dry grasses flanking the banks or crocodiles waiting patiently on an island for the sun to dispel the ashen morning. Their solitude only highlighted the loneliness in the dense trees beyond. In contrast, the numerous dark holes along the steep mud bank that our guide pointed out caught swirls in the water that conjured an anticipation of living reptiles lurking deep within them.
I saw more birds than I can ever distinguish in this hour ride, heard running water speak in a tone I had long forgotten since childhood, and felt the embrace of an alien but comforting silence more socially adept than any international city with all its personalities and entertainments. I took many photos attempting to capture the white wings of ghostly vapour. All of them fail to capture my experience in that time and place, but each of them inspires a vision for others to see in the future in foreign places.
I fell in love with the ragged island of tangled wood. I knew it would make a wonderful photo, without knowing what the photo would be. When I finally sat down and had a proper exchange with it in front of my computer, it suggested that I revisit the black and white dark rooms that I grew up it despite the lures of the rainbow spectrum. As it teased me to work, I rediscovered the ethereal beauty of crisp and infinite blacks seeping into sibilant blazing whites.