Secret shots, Amazon tastes

The cover of “Wild Amazon” credits its creation as “written, photographed, experienced and lived by Nick Gordon,” and in this case, it’s more than just cute advertising copy.

The late Gordon, a British photojournalist and natural-history filmmaker, spent more than 10 years immersed in the life of the Amazon rainforest, and the result is an intimate glimpse into an incredible, mysterious world.

In large, stunning color pictures, Gordon documents the people, animals and plant life in this area of stunning biodiversity, home to half of the world’s terrestrial species and known alternately as “the green ocean” or “the green hell.”

In down-to-earth, engaging anecdotes, he describes coming face to face with regal jaguars, swimming sloths, playful monkeys and rivers packed wall-to-wall with toothy caimans. He spends time with tribes whose ways of life are virtually unchanged for millennia, witnessing ancient ceremonies, warily ingesting hallucinogenic potions and even dining on a meal of tarantula (which he says tastes “a bit like crab”).

From the endless spread of the forest canopy to the rich, deep miniature ecosystems of the forest floor, Gordon’s pictures and prose seek to capture a little bit of the incredible complexity and interconnectedness of this primeval place.

The book concludes with a plea to remember the importance of sustainability and preservation to all the Amazon’s inhabitants, human, animal and plant.

And although Gordon says “I don’t preach … I entertain,” such love for his adopted home shines through his work that the reader can’t help but be moved to want it to survive as well.