Bryan Joel Mariano, The Philippines
Along the trails,
I found your sacred ground.
Beneath the calcite rocks there lies
algae on the surface of calm emerald waters,
forming like a god-trick map of a forest cover.
Contiguous yet continuously rearranged
by the movement of cold winds.
An hour of trek,
of treading through the rocky path
does not seem enough
to make sense of a billion years of your submergence.
Our encounter mimics the precarious sprouting
of plants in interstitial spaces.
Unexpected and weathered.
We do not mind the disturbances
for they amplify our desire for survival.
Bryan Joel Mariano is the Knowledge Management Specialist of Forest Foundation Philippines. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Development Communication from University of the Philippines Los Baños. His interest in knowledge co-production, nature-culture relations, and more-than-human discourse was largely shaped by taking a Master of Science in Geography at the University of the Philippines Diliman and through his work at the Foundation. Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Communication of Science and Innovation at the University of Trento, Italy.
Twitter: @bryanmariano_
