EXCERPT To look at the physical map of the Amazon is to see the continuous vascular network in the epidermis of the lamina of an inequilateral leaf. This image, in all its striking generality, is quite faithful in its details. The Amazon, the river, is like the woody beam of the main vein, and the tributaries are the secondary veins, curving outwards. These branch out prodigiously into the exceptional and unique hydrographic network that knits together the parenchyma of the regions of the forest. The secondary vein of the Urubu does not issue directly from the Amazon, but lies between the leaves of the Saracá lake, at the foot of Silves, where Inglês de Souza rebelliously donned the mantle of an unsettled missionary whose sinful embrace with a woman culminated in the ‘confirmation’ of Man…