I stood there transfixed. I didn’t know why. I hadn’t been dumbfounded like this before for a long time. What was it about her?
She stood in front of me smiling. She had long, straight black hair down to her shoulders. There her hair ended with a slight fold like a J on her shoulder, and the straps of her green dress started. It was an elegant green shawl with a matching green gown that extended all the way down to her legs, where it seemed to almost transition into the green from the forest.
“Why are you dressed so nicely to walk through the jungle like this?” I asked. And at like 6:00 am, I thought to myself.
“Oh thank you,” she chirped back. “I’m on my way home from my night out.”
“Where do you live? I see nothing but banana trees.”
“Come. I can show you.”
She grabbed my arm and started walking. I hesitated at first, but I had nothing better to do. I wasn’t really feeling my morning jog anymore anyways.
As she walked, it seemed more like she was gliding through the shrubs rather than taking steps. She moved with the ease of someone who was at home in this place.
“Where are you from?” she asked.
I explained how I am an American on vacation to Chiang Mai, needing a break from the constant churn of work.
“Humanity just constantly spins in an endless cycle,” she replied.
“Where are you from, and what do you do?” I asked, but she just grabbed my arm.
“I’ll show you,” she beckoned. I got confused as she took me deeper into the forest, where it seemed even less likely someone would live.
Suddenly, she stopped, in front of a massive banana tree.
“This is my home,” she explained. I began to reply, “Where? In the tree?” There was nothing here, just the forest. But as my words came out, she waved her index finger in front of my mouth, whispering “Shh.” I got really sleepy all of the sudden and collapsed into her arms.
Next thing I remember, I woke up on a bed in a bedroom with yellow walls.
“Where am I?” I screamed.
She walked over and sat on the bed next to my feet. “This is my home.”
“What?! Where did you take me?”
“This is my home, inside the banana tree.”
I screamed confused, but she whispered to me to go back to sleep saying she would explain when I was ready.
That was how I first came here. When I woke up next, I learned that she lived many many years ago but now inhabited this tree.
She said she once was a living person, but after her death, she realized how much humans stress themselves with the constant churn: to produce more, build more wealth, gain more status. Like a wave constantly hitting against the shore in an endless cycle. Now, she lives in the banana tree in peace and tranquility. She can go out and visit the humans when she wants to watch our flurry of activity, but she has mostly just enjoyed the peace of being in the forest.
“You sound like you need a break,” she explained. “So, you can stay with me as long as you’d like. I have everything your mortal body could possibly need here: food, water, a bed to sleep. But you can leave anytime you like.”
Sometimes I do go out for a few days to see the human world again. But mostly, I find peace in the tranquil state of existence under the banana tree with her by my side.
When I do go into the city, I find signs with a picture of my face labelled as a missing person. By this point, the humans must presume I’m dead. But they can only view “living” as producing within their system of constant churn, so it makes sense they would view my existence as a type of death. But I have really never felt more alive in my life.
