Caitlin Bush - Earth Train Panama
Week 7

                                                A Faded Detail

My eyes open and close swiftly, as I observe the colors and shades of a flower, and in between every other blink, I allow the pigments and contrast of values to slowly diminish, and transform into flat shadows.  The complexity of the flower had become simplistic, and what I found interesting was that it was now realistic. It was a symbolic statue of perception, representing my everyday life here in Panama.

The analogy I have made, is the only subject that I can compare living in the middle of the rainforest to.  The petals of this flower were hard to decipher; where one petal was connected to the other, which had a greater importance to the center of the flower, or what the exact pattern of these pixilated petals had meant.  In the moments of thinking this, I had become lost in what exactly detail meant in a life. 

We head out in the back of the white truck, jerking left and then right, grasping the mud covered side of the truck, or more comfortably, another’s leg, and set out for another day of work.  With machetes, shovels, one pick, and two bottles of water, we head out to do what? Well in honesty, I wasn’t entirely sure.  The truck stops and we launch our bodies out of the truck and onto the soft ground, as if freeing ourselves from a caged in rollercoaster ride. Standing on this stable ground after the bumpy ride is the feeling of trying to jump on the ground after hours on a trampoline.  I drag my large, black rubber boots along the uneven surface and follow the fearsome pack of men.  We were located at a local’s house, which is about a 10 minute drive from Centro Madrono, and because the Earthtrain program is looking to purchase most of the land acquired by this land owner in particular, today was a day for transplanting more trees! At this time, this is nothing new, we have transplanted trees throughout miles and miles of land scattered throughout this rainforest, to restore the various farmer’s deforestation techniques.  Typically, everyday absorbs at least a few problems depending on location and the idea included in the master plan, and although these problems seem consistent, as in a dreams deja vu that captures conscious reactions, but surface on unconscious decisions, there is always a feeling of that new beginning beneath the soil. 

Because Gringos have the stereotype of being next to worthless in Panama, we were separated from the Panamanian (machete group), and sorted into the less “dangerous” category of planting bamboo.  We begin by sawing the bamboo trees carefully into smaller sections.  I focus my attention on the back and forth movement, getting stuck on the pull back, and in doing this I was completely unaware of the bamboo splinters that now thickly coated my entire body.   Next, we would move the bamboo to the measured out areas, dig a hole and place it softly into the wet soil.  I pick up one piece of bamboo and observe it, as if looking for a reason why this one piece would be sufficient in this exact location.  The two sprouts crawled tightly along the perpendicular lines that circled the base of the bamboo.  

Like the flower, I wasn’t sure what the figures meant through relations, or how they would prosper individually, yet I continued to consciously react, and plant the grass one by one.

I began this trip, in search for details, for example, a deepened face of an indigenous Indian from the Kuna Yala, or the one blue butterfly with yellow and white spots on its wing.  When a picture is compressed, flattening the unfamiliar, and after, deepening what is left, we can together understand the basics in observing what it is that is truly there. In my eyes, the diversity that I have encountered is understood through realism, along with nature, and because we have the power together to create a sustainable life that we can understand together, that details are needed to observe the entire picture, yet unneeded to enhance any conclusion.