Odyssey From Africa 12d

Odyssey from Africa, Chapter 12 (d) The fireflower (cont.) Dominated by one hilltop Round in form, it’s summit hidden In the whiteness of a cloud base There they saw their destination Now they climbed by steepening gradient Through a changing vegetation To a lighter forest ambience As the trees became less crowded Soil and rock turned red in colour At ground level here and there they Saw the swollen stems and leaves and Orange flowers of Aloe vera Saw the twinkling purple calyx Of the upland Kalanchoe Stopping now to rest and eat, they Sat together in a circle As their guide explained, these highlands Were a place to seek the fireflower Find the lichen-mottled tree trunks With their sprays of slender branches Bearing high the vivid flame-like Blossoms of Delonix regia So they formed a line of searching And continued slowly onward Glimpsing once a red-mouthed fossa Crouching in a tree’s high branches With its kill, a ring tailed lemur As they passed it eyed them coldly Then a fireflower tree was sighted Young and slender, rich with flowers Which but recently had opened In the thinnest topmost branches But these branches were too fragile To support a human climber Therefore Lisa summoned Rosy And began communicating To the monkey what was needed That she climb and pick the fireflower Rosy now became excited To be gaining such attention So she quickly scaled the branches And began to chew the fire flowers! Lisa signaled to the primate This was not what she had asked for! Rosy finally got the message Tore off three or four fine branch tips Richly covered with the fire flowers Which she brandished as a trophy And she now grew animated Started screeching with excitement Leaped and swung between the branches Vanishing into the foliage Of the near surrounding forest Holding fast her crimson fireflowers Matto and their young companions Started calling to the monkey To return to them the flower twigs The baboon, though, made no answer Lisa was by this untroubled She paid Rosy no attention Calmly turned about in silence Started walking down the hillside Beckoning to her companions To commence their homeward journey As they all retraced their footsteps As they climbed the steepest incline Downhill through the highland forest Rosy now appeared among them In her hand the brightly coloured Bundle of the fireflower branches Now had grown to twice the number Covered with the healing petals