Have you ever run through the bush with the wind in your hair
Have you ever walked in the winter chill without a jacket and felt the winter creeping through your skin
Have you ever squished the mud in between your toes, ridden a wild donkey, watched the tadpoles grow in the pond cradled on top of granite kopjes
Have you ever wondered at the red and green of lichen as you lay on the warm sun drenched rocks
Have you ever marvelled at the silky red softness of the giant red spider mites
Have you felt the tickle of a thousand chongololo feet on the palm off your hand
Do you know that golden centipede must be brushed upwards so they cannot sting
Have you smelt the tang of the Matabele ants, or run like the wind at the sound of the leopard coughing in the dawn
Have you ever seen the waters of the Zambesi like mirrors in an upside down Alice in wonderland
Have you ever felt your skin tingle to cry of the fish eagle, the whoop of the hyena, the roar of the lion
Have you ever scraped devil thorns off from your feet with shrug, watched a zillion stars circle overhead as the fruit bats clouded the sky
Have you tasted the mohobahobas in season, the sharp taste of Marula wine, the sour wild plum
Have you chewed on green sticks of monkey bread and sucked on super-sweet sugar cane and spat the residue onto the roadside
Have you ever bought fishing worms from roadside vendors to set them free
Have you ever sat under an ancient baobab and wondered about its thousand year old memories
Have you stood drenched in the rainforest where the buffalo lurk to this day and listened to the roar of the devil's' cataract
Have you silently said hello in the dawn to a dainty bushbuck, a comical warthog, a majestic elephant
Have you reached out to trace a bushman painting in a cave
If you have - you probably lived in Zimbabwe - God's own country, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum.
Thank you to the Unknown Author.