Each novel is a journey in itself, but when the setting becomes one of the key protagonists of the story, as in
The Green Haze,
it seems imperative to explain why I invite readers to pack their bags, put their clothes in necessary to spend at least two weeks, and embark with me on a dream journey.
Because the destination that I propose to you may be one of the last virgin paradises on the planet: the lush basin of the Congo River.
enlarge photo Cova Fernández
Any story that takes place in Africa has to savor the essences of a continent that has such a powerful seductive effect for those who step on it for the first time that it is hard to forget the shocking moments that it makes you live.
Sometimes it's just the air, or the color of the sky.
Others, the work of the breeze that captivates the visitor with its aromas of savanna, the green sweetness of the closed jungle.
Or it may be the fault of the surprise produced by the contemplation of the local fauna that lives and moves outside of man, or of the magical sound of those rivers that seem to carry all the water in the world;
waters that weave the lives of its inhabitants and neighbors in its tiny villages.
A little more than 10 years ago I had the opportunity to step on the African jungle and, without being able to imagine it at that time, that experience left in me the need to tell a story framed in that exuberant enclave, and incidentally raise awareness among all readers so that Let us act for the good of one of the most wonderful heritages of our planet.
The result is a novel that, in itself, is a journey to the heart of an Africa that bleeds to death every day on the hundreds of roads stolen from the forest, drawn by companies that seek nothing other than a quick profit by deforesting, burning and destroying an ancient heritage, to put those lands under cultivation with which to produce palm oil and, in the last decade, soybeans: the queen of vegetable proteins, coveted not only for animal use, now also for the growing vegan diet.
enlarge photo A gorilla from the plains, in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (DRC).
Getty Images
The reader will tread the rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the unusual company of a clan of wild chimpanzees, with whom they will travel through swamps, peat bogs, nest in trees and eat fruits and tasty roots, as well as discovering the language with which they communicate with each other and their amazing ethology.
But it will also fly over the Congo River, the largest in Africa, in which mythology places an ancient being, Molnkèle-mbèmbé, a kind of dinosaur.
You will visit the Virunga National Park, 790,000 hectares recognized as world heritage by Unesco and a place that could be the last natural paradise on Earth, and that of the Volcanoes - adjacent to Virunga, but already in Rwanda - where Dian Fossey is He devoted himself to the observation and study of gorillas until finding his death in 1985 at the hands of some soulless poachers.
I will even run the reader down the southern slope of the Nyiragongo volcano, still active today, feeling its tremors and perceiving a dangerous sulfur odor in the air.
The trips are looks at the unknown, surprises in the face of the unexpected.
The same is felt by another of the protagonists, Colin, a dedicated Englishman, cooperative and ecologist, when his gaze turns to another of the country's great national parks, Kahuzi-Biega, rich in swamps and peatlands, dangerous and disturbing formations due to the huge amount of methane that could be released into the atmosphere as a product of the fermentation of the immense mass of plant matter accumulated for thousands of years under the waters of these wetlands;
a gas that could mean fatal damage to the planet's climate.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also Kinshasa, its capital and the most cosmopolitan city, the gateway to the country and the first impression for the visitor.
Although it will not be the only city that is crossed throughout these pages;
also little Lokutu, in Tshopo province.
And we will sail on Lake Kivu, border with Rwanda.
Would you like to fly in the company of an immense cloud of gray parrots through the Salonga National Park, spotting a group of curious chimpanzees on the banks of the Congo River?
If you dare, close your eyes, awaken your imagination and listen to
Two Steps from Hell
at that precise moment
, a
theme included in the soundtrack of the film
Men of Honor
(2000).
If they accept the invitation, they will have a great experience.
Writing is traveling.
Read, too.
I encourage everyone to do so, heading to the greenest heart of the African continent.
Gonzalo Giner
is a veterinarian and author of 'La bruma verde', Fernando Lara 2020 Novel Prize (Planeta).
Three stops in gorilla land
Nyiragongo volcano lava lake.
Thomas Markert Getty
The Virunga Mountains.
Home to the last of the mountain gorillas, this national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stretches from Goma, on the north shore of Lake Kivu, to the Ruwenzori mountain range, with majestic volcanoes such as Karisimbi or Nyiragongo, where it gurgles a fiery lake of red lava.
Ruwenzori.
With peaks towering over 5,000 meters on the DRC-Uganda border, its perpetual mists hide a world of giant flowers, black glaciers and eerie rain forests.
Kahuzi-Biega.
50 kilometers northwest of Bukavu, this national park encompasses a vast expanse of tropical forest, habitat of the lowland gorilla.
An advert.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain (exterior.gob.es) warns: “All non-essential travel to the DRC should be avoided.
Added to the problems derived from violence and insecurity is the complicated health situation (Ebola and Covid) ”.
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