In the clouds
I smell like smoke from last night's campfire. It's raining hard, as I sit in a the top of a tower, at the top of a hill, near the top of Malaysia.
The Cameron Highlands smell like home. Maybe it's just the rain, the mist and fog that clings to these hills in the monsoon. Maybe it's the jungle that's alive with so many things that you feel like you're looking at a wall of life, and you can really pick anything out. The most you can do is focus on something really small, one thing at a time, and try to fit it into a bigger picture in your head.
Sitting here above this place, watching the forest below it seems like I've got the sense of the land, but I haven't. What goes on below this canopy, from the hidden folds in the mountains to the games played by life, it's not fathomable to a person like me, an urban kid with natural sympathies. But still, panorama and microscope come together and make my understanding a little clearer.
This place smells like green, like water hanging from the sky. This place smells like life.