the commute to the workshop ~
Before Kadadasi made a single sheet of paper, it grew a forest, two acres of it, planted by hand over forty years, with an organic permaculture backyard flourishing across the rest of the family's seven acres.
the commute to the workshop ~
Two acres doesn't sound like much, until you start counting what lives inside it. The canopy shelters over 80 species of birds. Among them are seasonal visitors like the forest wagtail and orange-headed ground thrush, which return each year to this protected haven.
Raptors soar overhead, including the crested hawk eagle and serpent eagle that hunt among the leaves. And at dusk, owls call through the darkness, the collared scops, barn, brown wood and brown hawk owl, until the whole forest seems to be talking to itself.
a head office with eighty kinds of neighbour ~
Lower down, in the undergrowth and along the waterways, the forest keeps its secrets. The elusive Sri Lankan jackal. Tiny mouse deer no bigger than a rabbit. Porcupines that leave their quills behind as evidence of passing through.
Fishing cats prowl near the water, squirrels dart through the branches, mongoose slip between the roots, and countless others share this two-acre world, where every creature has a role to play.
every rustle in the leaves is somebody ~
This isn't a static reserve. It's actively managed, with waterways that support amphibians, insects and the aquatic life that sustains everything above. Every tree, every bird, every rustle in the leaves is part of a conversation between people and nature that began four decades ago, and continues to this day.
Read the full storyThe canopy keeps everything cool, so the workshop needs no air conditioning, just natural light and ventilation. Wastewater is recycled into a permaculture backyard, and the forest finds its way into the paper itself, with leaves, bark and petals pressed into the sheets.