Haunt of wild pig, cougar and piranha
medicines and spices grow at hand
ants that cultivate a monoculture
blossoms big enough to eat a man.

Several million people dwelled within you
bridges built, and settlements and roads
traded with the Inca as a nation
feared and dreaded when to war they strode.

Then their numbers crashed to almost nothing
when the white man came and brought disease
slashed and burned to feed a cruel invader
human remnants cowering in the leaves.

How so many species close together
satisfying every human need?
You were never pristine virgin forest
ever were a garden run to seed.