Learning to love nature with Julie Ah-Fa
Originally from Réunion Island, this Northcliff resident loves flowers that resemble butterflies and she takes part in activities that add to the sense of community.
Réunion Island is a French island known for its volcanoes, rain forested interior, coral reefs, and beaches.
To the imaginative among us, this country sounds like the perfect backdrop to a fantastic adventure movie. To one Northcliff resident this picturesque island is her other home.
When Julie Ah-Fa came to South Africa, she discovered two new passions – the art of botanical watercolour and karate, of which she is second Dan at Seido Karate.
“I’m part of the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa, a group of nature lovers. There, I learnt to see and appreciate all the details that lie before our eyes – but we usually don’t really see.” At a recent exhibition held in Kirstenbosch, she drew a strelitzia reginae (crane flower) and a rotheca myricoides (blue butterfly bush), flowers that remind her of flying butterflies. Ah-Fa thinks these plants are great examples of the ‘Mystical World of Plants’ which was the theme of the exhibition.
Being part of her karate dojo has really given her a sense of the community that she is part of. There she gets the opportunity to engage with people from different backgrounds and form an extended family. A trait – that faced the challenge of settling into a foreign land like South Africa – must have helped ease her.
When speaking of home, the Reunionese painted an idyllic picture. “A rainbow island, with a melting pot of cultures, where different communities live in harmony together, in an incredible nature. The island has very modern infrastructures and the French education and health system.” Though she said, one of her main challenges in life is not trying to hurt people around her. “Sometimes it was hard because I put other people I love before me, even if it costed my happiness. But now I have learnt to think more about myself. If we are not happy, we can’t make people around us happy.”
A goal Ah-Fa has would be to paint more endemic flora and fauna of her natal Réunion Island as 40% of the island is a national park and a Unesco World Heritage site. She said the island is one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots, and finding plants in their natural habitats is always like a treasure hunt for her.
As she follows a plant-based diet, she has developed a talent for trying two recipes, “I found the most scrumptious chocolate mousse recipe with only three ingredients – the water from a chickpea can, chocolate and sugar.” The other, she added, satisfies her sweet tooth – flapjacks, banana bread and muffin recipes – in a plant-based version.
Ah-Fa aims to live her life in line with her values – being kind and trying to harm the planet as little as possible is a good start. Should this inspire other people, that’s a bonus. “Everybody has their own choices to make; their own responsibility to tackle. Hopefully, they will make good and moral choices for the good of the community and the environment.”
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