Tree planted by Deng Xiao Ping, on his visit to the UN Headquarters in Nairobi. A small tree with a cord around it. If you get a bit closer, you can read that it was planted by Madame Deng Xiao Ping, probably as part of the ladies‘ program. The ladies‘ program, the best part of any ambassador’s life. The ambassador responsible for me is always busy with something that mostly takes him to one of the national parks, where he’s currently calling me from on his cell phone. That’s nothing special for him, but my phone is being redirected across the globe. So here I am, roaming in Africa, and I don’t even want to know how much it’s costing me, how much I’m paying to give the impression of being professional. I stub my cigarette out on my shoe. This grass, this soil, wildfire, I think to myself, inextinguishable, and elephants that get herded for kilometers because of it. I decide to pocket my cigarette butt.