Tommy Clarkson

Tommy Clarkson “paints” - what he calls and teaches those of his tutelage - word pictures. He’s effectively done so for quite a few years. Some were from locales such as Southeast Asia, during “that” war. While over thirty years later the conditions from which he wrote were not dense tropical jungle but rather the bleak and barren wastes of Iraqi "sandscapes". (Hot, however, seemed the constant condition in both settings he well recalls!)

His vividly written and extensively published articles have also concerned - as well as coming directly from - the ravaged devastation of hurricane, tornado and flood disasters. His sensitive "wordsmithing" of both nature’s and human-created horrors may also be seen in his poetry, prose and tropical botanical writings. He’s penned pieces from Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S., on tropical isles such as Hawaii and Kwajalein and over the last ten years - along with his patient and loving wife, Patty - has lived and written from the central Mexico Pacific coast.

It is in this latter location that they built Ola Brisa Gardens - designated by TripAdvisors as the Number One Tour destination in Manzanillo. It is also the place - now for more than a decade - from which he has created a popular, weekly column on tropical plants, entitled Planting Roots in Mexico. Additionally, this multi-terraced, tropical plant paradise was the subject of the highly received, award-winning book “The Civilized Jungle” - Tropical Plants Facts & Fun, Vol I. while Volume II is a continuation of this published, expeditionary trek!