Trip to the woods

Trip to the Woods

By Leo Kee Chye

When some of my friends have their bowling sessions on Sunday, others, their soccer matches on Saturday, I have my walks during weekends. Walking the woods, sometimes the parks, has become my kind of sport or hobby which I will not miss for the world except when I am sick or when the weather is nasty. I cannot explain my predilection (interest) other than I am not a “group” person. There is something inexplicable (cannot be explained) about the woods; though most of the time I feel like being the only soul there, the place is actually teeming with lives –everywhere – in the trees, the branches and even on where I step. It’s ALIVE. Today’s walk is particularly exhilarating.
I took my weekly walk in the nearby Bukit Timah Nature Reserve early today. The brilliant rays beamed from the sun filtered through the leaves and branches produced a rich tapestry of colours. The cool shade offered by the luxuriant canopy of trees instilled a sense of tranquillity, together with gentle morning breeze, the wood brought a refreshing sense of quietude. Surrounded by nature and in the midst of the wood, an ineffable sense of serenity and bliss came upon my spirit.

Today, I decided to go by a different route, taking the less-travelled path to the east, into the succession of descending dense forest and finally into a larger woods about a swamp. I do not remember I have ever been to this part of the woods before. The air seemed stiller; the canopy thicker and the leaves darker. It was already noon when I reached there. My grouching stomach had already sounded off the bell. I managed to find, under a shaded area, a trunk of a fallen tree, quite clean and dry enough to be seated – recently fallen, I guess, without signs of mouldy decay. I sat, took out my lunch box and when I placed it beside me, I realised I was not alone. 


I was sharing the seat with two large ants, the one red, the other black but much larger, nearly 3 cm long, were about half-a-metre away from me. They were clearly not seeking shelter or having lunch but in a deadly duel, with locked horns, wrestling and rolling incessantly. 

I stood up, looked around, and was surprised to find the surrounding forest bed covered black and red with these antagonists. It was not a duel between two ants but a war between two races – the red and the larger black. The war had already begun in earnest for everywhere was strewn with the death and dying Reds and Blacks. Not wanting my body to end up a battlefield, I sought a higher ground as well as getting a better view to witness the carnage. Their ferocity, brutality and pertinacity utterly shocked me when I doubted human soldiers ever fought so resolutely and fiercely. Hardly any of the dead was left with a complete carcass; everywhere were torn limbs and feelers, severed heads and butts. These ants, clearly did not contemplate capitulation, were determined in their fight to last ant and to their last breath. I was quickly drawn into their battle, taking sides and cheering on my preferred team. The war got my adrenaline pumping. I felt like one of the Olympian gods on the pantheon in Homer’s Iliad, watching and taking sides in the mortal war between the Greeks and the Trojans. I did not stay to find out who emerged victorious since I surmised the sun would have gone down before their lives went out. I got home before the sky became dark. I never like the woods when it is dark.