Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book. The book was called True Stories from Nature. It was about the primeval forest.

It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. A boa constrictor is a big snake. It can swallow animals whole.

In the book it said: Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing it. After that they are not able to move. They sleep during the six months that they need for digestion.

I thought a lot about the adventures of the jungle. Then I made my first drawing. I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: Why should anyone be frightened by a hat? My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

The grown-ups did not understand. I had to explain everything to them. That is always the problem with grown-ups.