Sun-Dappled Mangoes, Trees and Tropical Transformers

 

Life out here in the upper tropic is as eclectic as that title. There's a harmonious and jarring mix of everything.

My favourite part of living in the tropics in watching dappled sunlight filter down to lower branches, through to the ground beneath and bathe mangoes that are perfectly positioned to catch your eye. 

The thought crosses one's mind that the sun was made for the tropics. The way to experience this region's bright daylight and fiery heat is when large native trees sift them into pleasant yellow warmth. 

It can get dreamy very fast looking out the coffee shop. Your view ahead is a clump of green within which you can make out leaves of different types - some broad, some waxy, some delicately small, some a rich forest green, others a vibrant lime green - popping against a clear, baby-blue sky. That tropical sunlight hits differently at different canopy elevations - it's sharper at the tops of trees, gentle and inviting as it flows through leaves to land on the lower levels and finally, cooling but cheery when it gets all the way down as shade. 

And then, add mangoes hanging from long, elegant stalks you can make out against the green leafy mass here and there. Mild yellow sunlight washing the top of the orb-like shape contrasting against the raw greenness of the rest of the shape puts you in the mood of lazy reflection. 

That slow spring sun, before the heavy heat of summer arrives, invites you to slow down with it. It's easy to lose track of time as you sit there gazing at the growing day, looking within and coming back to the sunlight. It's not hard to imagine people of yore sitting in shaded verandahs or under thick shade contemplating life in an almost meditative state looking out over the green, blue and yellow of a tropical spring landscape.