I’m sorry, grasshopper
For having picked spinach leaves
From the place where you close your eyes
Before jumping to another leaf
I need vegetables for my salad
Like you need leaves for your food too

The food chain is sometimes heartless
We can fight just to get a banana leaf
For you to eat
Or for me to wrap my food

But don’t worry
There will still be millions of plants growing
Hoping for rain and sun
And the kind hands that care for nature
Hands that don’t mind getting dirty
Or touching worms

What do you want, grasshopper?
A forest to live in?
A garden to stop by?
The earth is still breathing,
Though gasping for breath
And you are part of life
Without you,
Birds might not survive

In fall,
leaves are falling,
fragile,
broken.

It’s not the failure
of the tree
to keep the leaves.
Somehow,
leaves must leave
to eternity.

And the tree keeps growing.
It regenerates.

In winter,
we contemplate,
we plan,
we choose
which plants to plant.

So, in spring until summer,
we enjoy the sun,
we smell the flowers.
But we never forget to prepare
for another season.

You don’t have to be me
if you don’t want to,
if you think you can’t.
No one ever forces a leaf
to become a flower.

But you can draw the rainbow with your hand,
with or without rain and sunshine.
You can bring the moon to your side,
to talk with.
You can even be a single tree in the desert,
letting the dust cover your leaves
before the wind blows it to the ocean.

Kadang aku iri
Pada mereka yang berbaring di sini
Dalam kegelapan dan keabadian
Yang memberi mereka ketenangan

Padahal di luar sana, kereta demi kereta berteriak nyaring
Susul-menyusul, berkejaran
Sementara kendaraan tak henti-hentinya menciptakan bising
Lalu-lalang melindas jalan raya yang telentang

Seperti apa rasanya di alam kekal saat malaikat bertanya, “siapa Tuhanmu?”
Apakah kau lekas-lekas ingin bangun dan berharap itu mimpi buruk?
Terutama saat kau sadar, belum cukup waktumu mengenal Tuhanmu
Dan kau bersumpah tak akan tidur sebelum paham jalan hidup yang kauciduk

Tapi, buat apa terjaga?
Sudah tidak ada yang patut didengar di dunia
Dilihat pun hanya akan menyiksa mata
Tidak ada yang lebih baik selain terlelap saja
Menyerahkan raga kepada pertiwi
dan sukma kepada Ilahi

So many nights
I think about what everybody thinks
I never think about.
I always have a million words
But I never say them to the people,
Because of what they’re gonna think
About it.

So I talk to my garden.
I tell the leaves what I think of.
I show the sky how I feel,
Because I believe in them.

My garden will bury my sentences
In the ground.
Leaves will never overthink what I say,
And the sky will answer
With sunshine or rain.

I’m never afraid of nature.
It has mouth,
It has words
So much more than I do,
But it knows how to speak better.

Sometimes,
By the falling of the snow,
Sometimes,
By the singing of the birds,
And sometimes,
By coloring the plants with flowers,

Or,
Sometimes,
Just staying silent
As the mountain.