As M-I spreads the drying cloves around, they make a loud tapping sound (like the rain on my roof) and cause the breeze to smell sweetly of cloves. Last month it was drying vanilla that perfumed the air in V. Now it’s cloves. I’ll miss this when neither is in season!

After I had fried up the fish for lunch (me—frying fish?? Who’d have thought!), the kids returned and asked if I was ready to harvest ambazaha on the mountain. Sleepy from the heat, I decided I’d like to go, especially if I’d be able to collect makoba, a fruit here whose English name, if indeed it has one, I don’t know. On the path to Masoa, from which point there is a stunning view of Nosy Mangabe, its smaller island trail, and all the way across the Bay of Antongil to the Masoala peninsula, we saw an enormous snake that, when I approached, flattened its black neck out and lifted its head like a cobra. This behavior encouraged me to admire it from where I stood, appreciating the black and yellow checkerboard pattern on its lower back. Later I used this to identify it in my book of Malagasy reptiles as a Leioheterodon madagascariensis, another endemic species. Was glad I didn’t go closer when I read in the behavior section of the species entry in my book: “When severely irritated or tormented it will flatten the throat area and hiss very loudly before defending itself by biting. When it does, this snake will also chew vigorously.� The good news is, “This species has no venom.� Nice that there are no snakes poisonous to humans on this island!

I walked the long trail home from the mountain with a basket full of makoba, ambazaha, and bananas slung on the end of a long sugar cane link that balanced on my shoulder, so that I looked like Tom Sawyer with his sack of possessions tied to a stick, slung over his shoulder. The collected food was heavy and the massive sugar cane pressing into my collarbone was rather uncomfortable. Made me appreciate what Malagasy men feel during rice harvesting season when they sling bamboo over their shoulders, a heavy basket of rice hanging from each end!

Time to fish in my Halloween goody bag for a treat! Much love to all, Rachel