This picture was taken in the coffee region in Colombia, near the house of a friend who has a plantation. This is the province where I come from. It’s a magical place where a lot of nice things happened for me.

The people live from colllecting coffee. The only landscape they see everyday, is this. Some of the kids never go to school; some have to walk for hours to get to school.

This picture shows all the diversity of the nature there, the very typical vegetation of what is in the mountains of Colombia. It’s the most tropical vibe you can have.

A lot of the plants in the picture are from the heliconia family, which must have a hundred types. The paradise bird plant is also part of this family.

When I’m over there, I realize that this is something that I miss so much: seeing all this diversity and variety. This is so high up in the mountains, 2600 meters above sea level. It's cold, and the light there is very diffuse. This is taken at night though, and you see the flash reflecting in some of the leaves.

When I was standing there, I already saw it as a picture before it was a picture. I never reframe; it has to be as my first impression was.

There’s things that I didn’t see at first. Here, I was taken by the geometry, the way the plants grow. But afterwards, when I start editing, I see all these elements of my photography coming back. The monstera at the bottom often comes back in my work.

It’s nature, it’s landscaping, and all of us photographers, we do the same. But there’s is all these elements that we, very unconsiously, search for in an image. I was really glad when I saw this part.