The word ‘green’ does not capture the half of it. At Bangkok Permaculture’s mangosteen farm in Trat, nature comes through in effusive, superpowered green - an orgy of greenness, with more green shoots coming through underneath. Here, nature is endlessly effervescent. It overflows like a badly pulled beer.
Watcharapol Daengsubha, known to all as Kwan, grew up in Bangkok, the son of a judge, studied English at university, and spent a decade as a dive instructor and coral conservationist before finding his calling in life.
Of all places, he found it here, on this swatch of superpowered green in the far southeast, just a stone’s throw from the Cambodian border.
Disillusioned with the commercialism of modern life, and impressed by the works of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren on sustainable lifestyles and farming techniques, Kwan resolved to take control of the family farm in Trat and make it both organic and self-sustaining.
He swapped a Bangkok home for a gloomy farmer’s shack, and set about the articulation of a dream. His story tells us as much about him as it does about what we as consumers can do to help build a better, more sustainable future.