Ants and mangoes

I crouch down in the sweet, melting fruit of the sun, the sunset-colored liquid melting my brain.

It entangles your blood, seeps into your bones, and before you know it, you've forgotten your body and are heading to the afterlife.

To what world will this extremely sensual sweetness lead me?

Did they fall into hell or rise to heaven?

The evidence of those who abandoned society and lived by instinct is there.

I wake up in the morning, wash my face in the kitchen, put on my glasses, and there are ants swarming and dying on the mango seeds on my plate.

Pai's morning began as I watched the ants, who had forgotten to carry food to their nests and were living to satisfy their own desires.

"Hmphphph, Churrrrilla."

The beautiful voices of unfamiliar birds and geckos welcomed us along with the morning sun.

I stretched out, breathing in the bright midsummer air filtering through the sunlight and the deep green world. I stirred a dragon fruit, mango, and pineapple smoothie and sipped footberry tea from a big, sooty kettle hanging from the hearth in the center of the cafe.

I just can't help but crave miso soup in the morning. Maybe it's an urge that's ingrained in me as a Japanese person. I have kelp, dried bonito flakes, dried shiitake mushrooms, and miso. There's only one thing in front of me that could be used as an ingredient. It's a green banana that I bought thinking it would be sweet, but it was for cooking. I've never done it before, but I think it would work. I simmered the banana in the broth and dissolved the miso.

The stewed bananas were fluffy like sweet potatoes and had just the right amount of sweetness. As expected, they went perfectly with the miso. I was happy to see that the common belief that any ingredient can be added to miso soup had been proven across borders in Pai, Thailand.

Miso and banana. Japanese and Thai people are dancing happily in the bowl. You never know what you're going to do until you try it. I felt like the bowl of miso soup was teaching me not to trust my imagination too much and to never forget to take on an adventure without fear of failure. At the same time, it told me that the ants that had left this world clinging to the mango seed were truly brave adventurers.

And I think it's a pretty good death for an ant, a much more comfortable and peaceful death than dying suddenly from being stepped on by a person or something.