A QUICK HALT AT ELTARI FOREST

My team and I have been stayed for 3 days in Kupang city to cover some stories about nature and health. Every day we were circling the city to meet some of our news sources and make us crossing the same path, over and over again. Every day I saw through my car window there is some dry forest at several area in Kupang city, Kupang regency and down to Timur Tengah Selatan regency that took placed about 4 hour car drive.

Those forests withered, the leaves are falling one by one, leaving the trees consisting only of branches and twigs and the leaves bend over just to remain perched on the branches. "There’s no raining for a long time, even in the Timur Tengah Selatan regency there’s no heavy rainfall for almost 2 years” said one of my sources.

Yes, this forest probably almost died. But my brain was filled with visions how beautiful the woods are if I could captured it with my camera. Beautiful because it was not perfect, because it was not immortal, because (perhaps) soon it would disappear, just like all other creatures in this world.

This is my last day in Kupang, after 6 days of struggling with the job assignment. Our car already heading  to the airport of Eltari when I passed back through those forests again. "Please stop here" I asked to Moses, the car driver who always accompanies our job assignment in Kupang. "I will feel so lame and depress if I went home without captured the forest. I’m dying to do those days ago since the first time I saw this dry forest”. My request was greeted with a happy expression of photographer who also apparently wants to take the photo here.

This forest is dry. The forest is hot. This forest (perhaps) almost died. But it all does not make its beauty lost. While captured it, I can only pray silently, hopefully this forest can continue to live, hopefully if I come back here someday there will be only green that adhere the fresh brown stems. Hopefully this forest does not die here. Hopefully this forest will not be just a memory in the future through my picture frame. Hopefully the forest continues to live until the end of time. (EKW)