A nature-friendly Valentine’s Day

Nilma DOLE

Being creative on Valentine’s Day isn’t an easy task, and making sure Mother Nature’s interests at heart makes it quite a formidable one at that.

We have always wanted to be creative when it comes to Valentine, so the Daily News features desk came up with some good ideas about how we can have a nature-friendly Valentine’s Day celebration.

The way to think of a nature-friendly Valentine’s Day greeting card is to use pachyderm paper or elephant dung as a card for your loved one.

However, even though it might be a little more expensive than ordinary paper, recycled paper would be the ideal alternative. Maximus, a company specializing in making customized elephant dung paper has innovative ideas for Valentine’s Day.

Elephant dung

“We make special hand-made elephant dung paper called pachyderm which is popular for making Valentine’s greeting cards and boxes for heart-shaped chocolates,” said a representative.

Elephant dung paper is 100 per cent nature-friendly and biodegradable because no plastic is used and other natural herbs and spices are blended into the paper to give it an aromatic fragrance.

Roses are not the ‘in-thing’ this year, so why not gift your lover dried rose petals? Potpourri (dried flower petals) is a rather interesting decorative item in the house and they smell heavenly.

The fact that red roses can be expensive suddenly, not only burns a hole in your loved one’s purse but they don’t last long to even fully admire the beauty and fragrance. The best solution would be to give a rose planting or a sapling, which can grow to give plenty of roses all year round.

Where garments are concerned, the best would be to wear ‘garments without guilt’ championed during the Galle Literary Festival this year.

Wearing such apparel that are made using low carbon, it would be ideal to help in the campaign against global warming. Not only will your loved one be reminded of reducing their carbon emissions but your future with them will be better without global warming.

Some ideas that cropped into our head were grass skirts for girls and a loincloth or large leaves for guys.

But not trying to mimick the dress sense of Tarzan and Jane, we promote the fact that you shouldn’t wear genuine animal fur because it is not ethical.

Another way to help Mother Nature is reduce the consumption of energy and water. Sharing a shower or a bathtub will help reduce the consumption of water and even studying together in the same room for example, will conserve electricity.

Better yet, get a jar of fireflies (with holes for them to breathe) to provide light better than candlelight since it doesn’t give off carbon emissions (except when they have biological functions). Solar, wind and dendro power are also good alternatives and find ways to use them with your loved one.

Camping out together or having an outdoor adventure will promote togetherness. You are one with nature when you gaze under the stars in the middle of a jungle that is romantic. Going on a safari trek or even a visit to the zoo will increase your understanding about animals and help you protect them, especially the endangered ones.

Make sure you have the chirping of the music as the food of love and use nature-friendly instruments like flutes made from dead bark instead of piano that uses ivory tusks from elephants.

Call of the wild

Listening to the call of the wild will not only help you mentally but will inspire your hearing senses.

A marine expert said: “It has been scientifically proven that swimming with dolphins will help you achieve great personal satisfaction and they help in healing people with disabilities.” Why not snorkel or dive and discover the underwater world together?

Plant a tree together to make sure you give a hand to life and gift each other saplings to plant together instead of wasting money on flowers that are bound to die.

The tree of life is an important aspect of nature and promoting this will help you lead a life of fulfilment and happiness with your loved one not only on Valentine’s Day but everyday.

Clean the house together or collect garbage on a beach or a park hand-in-hand and sing love songs while you are at it. Valentine’s Day is a joyous day of giving unconditionally so help protect Mother Nature because your future with your loved one should be good for the environment!