The Legend of the Man-Eating Tree of Madagascar
Environmental Graffiti: The year is 1878. In their scramble to enlighten and conquer the fortunate (though often strangely ungrateful) peoples of the globe, the great colonial powers are discovering that the world is a damned strange place. Incredible and disturbing accounts filter back to London, Brussels and Berlin. They speak of faraway lands, lost cities and zoologically-unlikely critters. Many of these travellers’ tales are mere exaggerations, and most will be duly forgotten. But in the steaming, savage jungles of Madagascar, a legend is about to be born which will refuse to die…
Madagascar is at this time a still heavily-forested country that remains terra incognita to outsiders. With ninety percent of its indigenous flora found nowhere else in the world, it’s a jungle in which anything could be lurking. Machete in hand, German explorer Carl Liche leads a group of Mkodo tribesmen deep into this heart of darkness. Entering a clearing, Liche suddenly halts. Before him is a sight no white man has ever seen: a trunk ‘like a pineapple eight feet high’, with thick leaves hanging to the ground from its peak, and sinister 7-foot tendrils stretching in every direction.
