MAY 2023 · ADVENTURE
Vietnam - Sa Pa rainforest foraging
Hoàng Liên Sơn Mountains, Vietnam
May Kim stopped on a path through the bamboo forest and picked something from the undergrowth. She held it out — a plant for medicine, she said, this one you use for this. A different leaf from a few metres away: this one you can eat. The knowledge was specific and was demonstrated rather than explained. She wasn't botanising. She was showing what the forest gave.
She wore a red hat, the traditional Red Dao headwear, and moved through the forest without hesitation. Kneeling beside a stream to identify something at the waterline. Standing among tall bamboo examining the understory. The bamboo grove in particular had its own light — vertical striped stalks, mist above, the canopy filtering the morning. A woven basket was hanging from a branch nearby, placed there and left.
The knowledge was specific and was demonstrated rather than explained.
Sa Pa — May 2023
The basket appears in several frames: backlit among bamboo and forest vegetation, swinging slightly in soft woodland light, set against the dense grove. It's the practical item that makes the knowledge visible. The plants go into the basket. The basket goes back to the village.
May Kim harvesting plant materials from the forest floor. Close up, her hands on the herbs. In another frame, she stands beneath a towering wooden framework at the edge of the cultivated land — the poles and the banana plants together, forest and farmland meeting.
The mist ran through all of it. The bamboo forest in the morning light, misty hillside with terraced cultivation visible. Lush rainforest understory with banana foliage and mist. The woven basket among it all, practical and specific, full of what she knew.
Red Dao guide in red hat foraging among rainforest plants
Person walking through towering banana palms in misty forest
Close-up of Red Dao guide harvesting herbs from forest
Indigenous guide kneeling beside stream in lush vegetation
Misty rainforest landscape with single tree emerging from fog
Dense misty forest canopy with fog filtering through trees
Red-hatted guide examining plants in rainforest understory
Forager with woven basket among tall forest vegetation
Woven basket hanging from tree with forest in background
Backlit woven basket among bamboo and forest vegetation
Dense bamboo grove with woven basket in soft woodland light
Striped bamboo stalks in vertical forest composition
Misty morning light filtering through tall bamboo forest
Forager in misty bamboo forest with lush understory
Red Dao guide harvesting plant materials in forest
Straight path through tall bamboo forest with person
Misty hillside landscape with terraced cultivation visible
Dense rainforest canopy with volcanic outcrops below
Mist-shrouded hillside with forest and distant mountains
Misty valley landscape with sparse trees and green growth
Weathered wooden frame structure amid dense vegetation
Decaying wooden structures among tall forest vegetation
Tall timber poles overgrown with climbing vines and ferns
Wooden supports with dead leaves and plant regeneration
Banana plant among weathered wooden garden structure
Guide in red hat beneath towering wooden framework
Dense forest canopy with tall weathered wooden poles
Misty forest with banana palms and decaying structures
Lush rainforest understory with banana foliage and mist
Morning mist enveloping tropical forest vegetation
Fog-covered landscape with banana plants and green growth
Misty morning in rainforest with banana leaves and trees
Dense mist obscuring forest with faint silhouettes
Tropical forest clearing with banana plants and mist
Lush green forest scene with banana palms and mist