Once when I was
six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from
Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa
constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors
swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to
move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures
of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making
my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my
masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened
them.