Monique Stauder: Latitude Zero

Each poetic adventure is distinct, and each poet has sown a different plant in the miraculous forest of speaking trees. Octavio Paz Latitude Zero is the culmination of a 25,000-mile odyssey that begins at the mouth of the Amazon River, moving in a westward direction, documenting the precious pact between humanity and nature within one degree north and south of latitude zero through Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru, Indonesia, the Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Sao Tome e Principe. No itinerary or agenda was necessary. The purpose of Latitude Zero was to be as visually playful and uninhibited as possible, to simply be authentic and document life with a capital L. Any point within the equatorial zone was fair game, unless geography (Manaus) or politics (Mogadishu) dictated otherwise. And imagine a meal of beans and rice deep in southern Colombias rainforest with the FARC guerrillas, or eating turtles laced with honey with the Congolese pygmies, or dining in a loud testosterone-driven petrol platform cafeteria off Gabons Atlantic coast!