I have been living in this jungle for two years. It doesn’t matter who I am. There are a couple of pandas here, several chimpanzees, dozens of lions, hundreds of canary birds, millions of butterflies and there may be a Tarzan. Consider that I am one of the animals. I am not a person and I am not the woman so called by people around her “ Salwa”. I am no longer honored to be mentioned under the category of “Human Beings”.
All the creatures here fly, crawl, flee like a deer, walk, or speed like a group of moose escaping from a tiger or lion or from a hungry hyena
At the same time while this hunting, chasing and attacking is taking place a beautiful swan is peacefully sleeping on the surface of a calm lake composing a symphony. Zebras mate, rhinos mate, giraffes mate, birds on the bushes mate. God created “mating”- not bloodshed - for existence to remain. It is a fact that- we in this jungle- kill each other, but we kill to eat and continue to increase and continue to be. This is the theory of God, we do this because we obey the divine law of reproduction and existence .We do not kill for the sake of a presidential term or to keep a king’s throne like you stupid beings do! You are called “Humans” and we are wild animals and beasts and look what we do and look what you do? Whose brutality do you think exceeds?!
I won’t describe you human beings as savage animals because frankly speaking I found animals much kinder, smarter and more merciful than you stupid beings! It is true we –the animals - eat and are eaten, but we are fine with that. We are living well. All the species don’t become instinct, although this daily repeated hunting. We are ruled by God and this giving nature. Actually, it is you human beings who are endangered because of all this bloodshed and you are the ones who might join the dinosaurs. All these carnivores don’t threaten our kingdom nor does it make our eyes tear after any loss.
Also do not forget the merry truth which is: We are animals! Wow! How relaxing and comfortable is that! It is a wonderful feeling. Please don’t envy us! We have no moral principles, which make us suffer insomnia because we couldn’t find them on earth. We have no ideals that we get self- tortured while trying to reach them. We know no role model that we are ambitious to follow. We have no minds that could be exhausted nor do we have hearts that could be saddened. We don’t have a religion that we are restricted to; we simply “love” God! We are free, literally free. Please don’t envy. We don’t believe in a religion that swindlers come and distort. We have no identity cards that invaders would come and grab from deep inside our souls. We belong to no nationalism that would make us burst of laughter at the end of our lives when discovering that it was just a big fat lie! We are not related to an illusion so called “Arabism”, which turned out to be a monument that should have been put on the shelf long time ago side by side with souvenirs and antiques. Any land is our home and any sky is our shelter. We have never tried how being homesick tastes like. We don’t know how it feels when you’re homeless. Please don’t be envious. We have never ever - we the “animals”- invaded a land that wasn’t originally ours nor have we ever ripped the texture of a sky with foreign, planes striking- from the sky - the people on land. We are pure and innocent so please don’t feel jealous. Here goes that deer running faster than the wind, trying to escape from a lion chasing it with its pointed canines. If the lion captures a deer, the deer will die and the lion will survive. If the lion fails to capture it then the deer will live and the lion will find another victim to eat. But look at you stupid beings! Just look at you! Killing, slaughtering, bombing, air strikes , drones , missiles causing death and bloodshed and for what reason? Just for that damned powerful “chair”! The chair, that has, never lasted for any previous ruler. You guys are – frankly speaking - just foolish! Observe with much respect our lion, He is the king! He allows everyone to live and breathe. He has never stopped squirrels from coming down from trees. He has never suffocated frogs by stopping them from leaving the lakes. He has never caused the death of snakes , by siege , stuck inside the holes. I am not exaggerating if I say that we are secure and we are truly living in peace.
The reader of my story might not be convinced; he or she would ask themselves how on earth could a jungle be better, more peaceful and safer than the life of “Me”, I am a human being ? He simply can’t expect the beasts to be more merciful and tender than humans. Believe me, they are, believe Me. Please don’t forget the fact that we animals when we hunt or attack, then we are at the end of the day the so called animals. What is your excuse when attacking or killing? I bet none of you could find a response. You know why? It’s because you humans kill for the sake of the chair of power not for survival. That is WHY!
By the way I haven’t been living in this jungle for many years. I only graduated from the Humans’ university two years ago. I am a 2014 graduate. Let us all salute our honored Professors who taught us all the curriculum of war from cover to cover. They were the ones who made us weep and suffer. They are the ones who made children with no father or mother! They went on instructing until they made our hearts stop beating because of fear. Until they made us frightened inside our locked house, no one dared to move. If one of us left we would scream. “Hey! Don’t leave us. Stay near.” Thanks to our mean, guilty and evil Professors .They were the ones who spoon fed us fear. Today I want to curse and swear at all the salespeople who sold our Arab homeland. I want to call them savage creatures, wicked and aggressive gangs. It is them who sipped our blood. They sold from the tree all the fruit, roots and even the wood and leaves. Please allow me to curse them. Never mind, the French language. Never mind all the etiquette rules. Those homeland dealers cheated us and our country. They sold the precious for cheap. They stood on the surface but their harm hurt us deep.
I tried after the war started in my country in 2014 to get used to the harsh, rigid reality. We are no longer those embalmed audience watching war in the news! We are now people living IT!! I tried to adapt making friends with explosions! I made an effort to hear those air strikes as tame tunes. I tried not to age and not to wrinkle whenever I heard a rocket and I tried to convince myself that they were lightning and thunder dancing Flamenco . I was scared, however, to pass away one day under the wreckage of my house. I was terrified that the floods of my people’s tears would wash me away with the trees and cement. However, I must admit that living within all that loss, misery, poverty, homelessness, and dispersion were just far more than I could tolerate or bare. My country was being slaughtered in front of all of us. We knew who our enemies were even though the custom party. Snatching safety from a homeland is not something facile. Actually it is as difficult and harsh as a soul departing from its body. It doesn’t happen until dying happens. So how difficult would it be for me? I was a woman who was more like a fish. Since when have fish lived outside water? I want to tell you a secret, please don’t let anyone know. I will whisper in your ear. I don’t want anyone to hear. I was a human being one day and I used to live with humans. I escaped to the jungle when I noticed that I was no longer breathing “oxygen” but I was inhaling fear! Please don’t tell anyone know because I am afraid that the wild animals would smell the flesh of my neck. I am now delighted to be a hedgehog! Come see me. How see how happy I am! I chose to be a hedgehog maybe because it’s just as small as me! Although it is petite but it can defend itself when it turns into a ball of thorns like needles. I admired the fact that although it is small but it can protect itself. I chose to be a hedgehog. I rolled down a hill, or went down the river on a log. I swim , row in a puddle.
In times of peace and pleasure I raise my head up high. I smile to the sun rays peeping from between the natural roof of knitted leaves. In time of happiness I dance and sing out loud. I sing my favorite songs. I close my eyes and remember my friends and how much I miss them here. I also brought within me my beloved pen. I kept it on its shelf on my rib. Anytime I feel like writing I just take my pen and gently pull a leaf and write. Nobody here threatens me. Nobody here warns me that I could be kidnapped or one of my family would be kidnapped and because of what? Because of a STORY! How funny, how hilarious, how killing is that life of yours humans and how boring! You don’t even dare to open your mouths, expressing your opinions is prohibited, you and I am a witness can’t even write! Here I write on earth or sky. Here I write how injured I am and I explain mu sigh. Please don’t envy! But I am not hundred percent happy and content. Wait let me tell you about myself when memories of Yemen attack. I stand there unarmed when the memory of my homeland “Yemen” attacks me. I just can’t defend myself then. When the memories of Yemen attack me , when I touch them and smell. I stand there weeping until my tears run in ditches. My tears run inside the cracks of the land of the jungle . My tears make the cracks shudder. I gave this shudder a name. I called it my baby Yemen. I lack for a hug. Not a hug of a human, I need a hug from Yemen. I want to close my eyes. I want to cuddle. I’m a hedgehog remembering “Yemen “when it rains, when it’s dawn. Dawn sprays a perfume when in Yemen. I am a hedgehog remembering my relatives, my language, my house and that “Salwa” eating Yemeni food in Yemen! I can smell the food. I am, however, safe here. I don’t press my heart with my hand to stop it from leaping to the floor after hearing tremendous explosions. I , here, don’t block my ears with my fingers to avoid hearing more rockets racing in our sky. We became ears those times, we became eyes!! Here in the jungle, I don’t have to look to the other side to stop my eyes from seeing a wreckage of a house that shattered down on the heads of the people living in it .Why? I am willing to die to know why? I am a happy hedgehog here. I don’t want to see anymore a finger without its hand nor a foot without its leg. Enough humans enough! Please, enough, if begging you to stop would make you stop I am not ashamed to beg!
I didn’t leave Yemen for trivial reasons. I left it after barbarity became viral. I left it when death became more than birth. When all chatting in my job ,which was my spiritual compensation in Yemen, became all about people’s death and how they died. I have, throughout my life as a human being , neglected those who lied to me. I have ignored those who back stabbed me. I have excused those who deceived me. I have forgiven those who cheated me. I have loved again the few who have hurt me. But harming Yemen? No, no, no that I can neither ignore nor forgive. This is my homeland, YEMEN!
Suddenly I saw under the surface of the lake beautiful orange, white and blue fish swimming. I came closer to observe their delightful colors. When I came closer my image was reflected on the surface of the water. I was terrified!! I saw on the surface of the lake ME! What does that mean? So, I am not a hedgehog as I imagined to be . I felt really scared. So I am still a woman. The wild animals undoubtedly are going to attack me. With my heart beats louder than lions’ roars I hid behind a tree. I was so scared. I thought I was a hedgehog. How come I am still me? I then heard a loud laughter. I looked in all directions to figure out who was laughing. Then I looked down on the ground. To my surprise an ant was there giggling and pointing at me. She asked me in a way which showed that she was making fun of me:- “Now why are you afraid?” I replied squeezing my body behind the trunk of a tree, :-“ I don’t want the wild animals to eat me.” The ant went on laughing. I heard it say:- “ You came a cadaver to the jungle. Wild animals don’t eat a cadaver. Listen, you want an advice from me? Go back to Yemen, just go… because people like you don’t leave it even when they leave it. So decide either to be there or in the jungle not to beA