Whenever I see the sky filled with clouds and the air feels cool, I'll just hear myself, "What a beautiful day."

Clouds. Hmm.

Funny how lately watching them pass by in the sky just suddenly gives a relaxing effect. I mean, I dunno. When I was a kid I just stare at them from the upper floor window (and how large our window was) and realize, "Man, I am so BORED." I get restless.

Growing up in a province can be quite an experience. Never owned much of the city kid stuff like fancy robot toys or the latest gaming console. All I had were paper planes, tons of imagination, and a whole backyard of coffee trees waiting for adventure.

I was like Huckleberry Finn.

I'd go on lone adventures into the plantations looking for fighting spiders and exotic tree orchids. And the ultimate safari discovery ... a rare species of sunbird the locals call Ibong Diablo. I never really got a good look at it. But when I hear its calls, it felt like an urgent hunt for treasure.

I know which sort of trees have weak branches for climbing, and I know where the May cicadas lay their eggs. I once thought of trying to raise cicada larvae but reading that they take seventeen years to mature, the prospect got a little slim.

Perhaps one of the most childish, enjoyable things to do in a rustic setting like that was looking for food -- in the forest. My cousins and I would know which plants bear edible berries, and which root plant can have tubers we can roast for eating.

Sadly, those days are gone.

I've become something way, way different now. Stuck in a fluorescent-lighted office, typing away Java codes and stuff. Perhaps in one little dream I might find myself running through the leaf-covered grounds of the coffee plantations running ... exploring ... the scent of the forest making me high. Oh wait that was marijuana.