Sri Lanka has evoked visions of a teardrop on India's check, a pear, a mango, a pearl and, in Dutch eyes somewhat insensitive to the misgivings of various cultures who live on it, a Westphalian ham. Even more politically incorrect, the Portuguese poet, Camoens, vividly described how:

Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,

And waves her woods above the Watery waste

A contour map will show just how accurate his image is, and the evidence of geology shows that Sri Lanka was indeed once under the sea, before it thrust itself skywards. The fossilized remains of prehistoric creatures formed the limestone rock that rose out of the watery waste. Its woods waving in the monsoon-bearing trade winds are far less abundant than they once were, but otherwise the poet has summed up the island well; mountains, forests and sea.