Jurassic park vs. Paradise

I live in an incredibly beautiful place.
Right next to a river with a thick forest of trees so big I'm in awe. My closest neighbours are a horde of colobus monkeys and at least 30 silvery-cheeked hornbills. A friend always tells me I live in Paradise. I sort of agree: it's beautiful! But not half as uneventful and predictable as Paradise.

You sort of think of paradisiac nature as quiet - but thses guys are noisy! Once in a while the colobus monkeys engage in some serious logging, felling whole branches at a time, making it difficult even to have a conversation. And the whirr of this crazy-looking bird's gigantic wings makes you think there's a flying dinosaur right above you, ready to swoop you up in his claws. Not to mention the absurd sound of his crow - lika an annoying old woman croaking into a megaphone and set to high speed. Incredible. And much more comical and invigorating than a peaceful, predictable paradise.

Incidentally, an elderly man told me the local fable about the hornbill. The moral of it is, he said, when you have something good, don't try to 'shape' it too much, or you will spoil it. The mother of the hornbill, or Hondohondo as it is in Swahili, wanted to get his bill just right, and then she 'overshaped' it.