The Caves and Karst Art Contest by the European Speleological Federation FSE; winners announced on the 4th June 2022

Goutier-Juffermans, Silvia

The Netherlands

As a child I already was marvelled by nature and got interested in geology, prehistory and biology. Getting acquainted with speleoclub Speleo
Nederland I discovered that in being member I could combine those interests with durable friendships and sportivity. Now I am about 45 years
member of Speleo Nederland and currently president of this club. And still I feel I have a lot to learn about speleology and there are still undiscovered
ways of practising and enjoying this hobby.
Shortly I enjoyed some Japanese haikus. And as I do also like some writing I got inspired to try some Speleo-haikus.
I also discovered that the Japanese languages has a lot of words to indicate caves and hollows in the underground, each word from a different angle of
perception. Because I liked that I started my document with ten different words for cave.

Speleo-Haiku, February 2022

I read a book about Japanese haiku’s. They are perfect to give an short impression of the beauty of a natural phenomenon or to describe an atmosphere. As Japanese
has several words for cave I thought it decorative to start with them first.