Ode to the land

This post is an ode to the 40 acres I have called home for over 9 years. Within two weeks I will be moving into suburbia. Leaving behind a resort that I built as well as friends I have made.

When I moved to this piece of land, over 60km on a dirt road from the nearest town, there was nothing but jungle. In the time I have been here I have managed to temporarily tame a small portion of that jungle and from it I created a life for my partner, our dog and myself.

I learned to fish the tropical waters, and grow food on the land.

I learned the way of the local people.

I learned how to slow down.

I learned the art of silence.

I know what the night sky looks like when there are no other lights.

Birds’ singing their morning song so loud that it wakes you from the deepest sleep.

The night is never quiet out here, it has a life all its own.

I have experience rain so hard you can’t hear yourself talk.

Days so hot I thought I would melt.

I have seen wild parrots and wild pigs.

I have seen sailfish and sea snakes.

I have spent entire days on the beach watching the clouds roll by.

There are days when there are no vehicles that pass by.

There are days I thought would never end and days I wished never ended.

Change is constant and I am constantly changing the

way I see the world around me and the way I see my self.

I have been changed forever in ways I know and ways I don’t know.

I will embrace this new adventure I am about to embark on.

I will change and change again for it is part of life and I am alive.

The preceding photographs are mere snapshots of what has inspired my photography these last years. They represent one half of the boundary of my back yard and are a glimpse for you to see what my world has been and where a lot of my images come from. If you want to see the resort I built and more glimpses of where I have lived in Fiji click here.