1945 A Letter from the Jungle


Today was bright and shining. The promised rain of yesterday failed to materialize. There was no mail tonight.

As platoon clerk I get to go through the mail first but tonight there was only one package, three newspapers and a magazine for the whole platoon. We have not received our PX rations this month yet but I hear they will come in Monday.

I went to the movie last night to see "Strange Affair". It was about, as you would expect a cheap mystery. "Dowery to Broadway" with Jack Oakie, promises to be better for tonight. (From the number of mistakes I am making in writing, I must be nervous or something.)

My duties as clerk are not strenuous but I have to be on the job all the time. I have heard that our platoon will move a little closer to our building project. I guess I will have more to do when we get located and the job gets in full swing.

I am getting another box ready to go. It contains a few ivory figures of lions and a camel. They average in cost of about three dollars each but I think they are the best souvenirs I can buy in this country. I am also sending a couple of fragments of plain glass. The reason why is that they are nature made. I picked them up from a large crushed stone.

Nature is a strange thing - so filled with beauty yet permeated with the cruel survival of the fittest. It is a common sight to see the vine that twines about a tree forming a mosaic of vines that slowly strangle the tree to death. The vines then fuse into one trunk and it is hard to distinguish it from an ordinary tree. There is one tree that has a weapon against this vine. When the vine first starts growing, an overlay of bark, will grow completely around the vine -- and strangle it to death.

Most of the larger trees in the vicinity are whitish in color and bare except for red Lilly-like blooms. I haven't seen a coniferous tree growing here but the multitude of vines and deciduous trees, which do not loose their leaves, keeps the jungle green.

I don't believe I described the sunrise I saw yesterday morning: I went on an errand to the officers quarters up on the riverbank. After I had finished the business I stood and observed the beauty of the sunrise. A low range of mountains rise above the forest on the other side of the river. The sky was heavily overcast with clouds, which were just beginning to turn reddish purple over the indigo of the forest. Soon a dark reddish path swept across the deep blue of the river. Rapidly the sky paled, the clouds grew brighter red, and the shimmering water reflected the brightening light. The dark bulk of the mountains became more than a silhouette by breaking into two parallel chains of jungle clad mountains, while between the clouds, the sky could be seen to be turning to pale greens and blues. In one spot the red clouds grew brighter and brighter until suddenly the red rim of the sun itself appeared. A flame of light shot across the path of water, and in reflection brightens the whole sky. The sun stood poised for an instant on the crest of the mountain and then sprang into the sky. A new day was born.