A ‘Letter to Nature’ by Juliet Oluoch

Nature breathes life into our cities. As part of a new campaign to highlight the importance of urban nature to our everyday lives, C40 has invited mayors, artists, cultural influencers and other thought leaders from cities around the world to write a ‘Letter to Nature’.

Read what Juliet Oluoch of the C40 Global Youth and Mayors Forum has to say about nature in her city.

“Mother nature,

I know you’re probably wondering where we’ve gone. Where are all those people who used to wander in your woods? Isn’t the silence deafening?

We miss you, probably more than you miss us.

Take this time to bloom.

Take this time to rejuvenate.

Take this time to conquer your space, and when you’re back, we promise to treat you better than we did before.

I’m doing this video today, to talk to you, and to thank you for giving me all the necessary things I have needed.

Thank you for this body, thank you for the food, thank you for the water, and thank you for the energy.

Even though I live in a city of a concrete jungle, I feel more at home when I am in touch with you. I feel more at peace when I am in your presence.

When I look at the sunrise in the morning, it fills me with positive energy, a positive vibe to conquer the world.

The skies and the stars make me realise how great your kingdom is, and just how small I am.

But when I think that I am part of you I feel great.

When I look at the sea, I see a perfect strike of balance. You are so agile at the surface, but deep beneath you are at peace that you contain a whole separate world in there.

When I look at the rivers, when I look at the hills and the mountains, I see a beautiful painter, I see great aesthetic value, I can go and rest by the riverside just to meditate, when the world around me is so unbearable.

Words are not enough to describe how grateful I am to mother nature.

Thank you. My name is Juliet Oluoch, I am from Nairobi, Kenya.”