New Logo!!!

New Logo!!!

We finally have a new logo!

Since we now have electricity and the rain gives us ample time to work on lower-priority projects like this, we finally finished what we wanted to do for a long time.
The change was long overdue, since the former logo was created in somewhat of a hurry, and resembled our former partner project’s logo as well as our main focus at the last project in Krabi province.
We still plant plenty of bananas, but we felt that our new logo should represent more than that because our scope of activity and interests has widened a lot ever since we moved here.
We’ve begun to take more steps away from domestication and towards rewilding, to an extend that would have been impossible in Krabi.
What we do now goes much deeper than just collecting bananas in a peri-urban setting.

We’ve decided to keep banana plants in the logo though, because of their special status in both nutritious and spiritual terms. Bananas make an excellent tropical staple food (not only the ripe and unripe fruit, but also flower, heart, and rhizome of the plant), and they represent infinity: an endless cycle of maturing, giving shoots, fruiting, dying, and continuing to live on in their offspring.

It was obvious to us that our new logo should be based on the majestic mountains that watch over us and include a part of our favorite mountain panorama, as seen from the center of our land. The hills in the image are located between Khao Soi Dao Tai and Khao Kitchakut, to the northwest of our farm. Behind them is a vast Nature Reserve with herds of wild elephants and towering old-growth.

On the left is giant bamboo, because it is not only a staple food in rainy season, but a plant we utilize almost every day and without which our life would be a lot more difficult. Apart from eating the shoots, we use it for construction, roofing, furniture, fence posts, stabilizing swales and terraces, trellis for climbing plants, tools and utensils, biochar, tinder, chopsticks, and much more. About one quarter of our land is still planted in bamboo, and we are grateful for this gift from our Great Mother.

To the right is the most beautiful tree in our garden, Balakata baccata (formerly Sapium baccatum; called ต้นโพบาย, “Dton Pho Bai”, in Thai). It is not only the largest and oldest tree on our land, but also the tree we placed our “spirit house” underneath. It’s sweet fruits are a rare delicacy, since the tree doesn’t fruit every year and you don’t find them in the market.

The sun sets in exactly this place when the rain starts after the dry season, so the sunset stands for fertility and vigor, because it marks the beginning of rapid growth, lots of life-giving water, and easier times for the plants after dry season. This is the time for phenomenal postcard-like sunsets that remind us each time we experience one of just how lucky we are to be alive in this magical place.

The Hornbills represent love and care (because of their mating habits and child-rearing practices), and are, according to the indigenous Dayak people of Malaysia, a sign of good luck and fortune when seen flying over their residences. They regularly fly over our garden – at times daily – and can be recognized from afar by the loud swooshing sounds of their wings.

Special thanks go out to Dave’s brother Caspar, who had the initial idea to use this particular portion of mountains, and provided the raw sketch.