Waste To Worth — Worthily In Nature And Cell Poem by Tony Cemaluk Egbuonu

In Maputo sun or Tsinghua light,
work in remote base, right here, travels past lab and night.
Not just read — but built upon,
A line of proof the world leans on.

Nature speaks, Cell stands, others clap — and none lend their page
To whispers that will not engage.
When they cite work done here, it means this:
Data from this remote end holds. The method is this.

Food waste streams — peel, bran, pod, rind, seed, stem, leaf —
based on biochem core, bioactivity profile, were turned
from "nothing more" to prospective many more.
Agri-food chemistry finds its claim, dancing,
Because the work here was duly signed, stamped
with a solid, stolid name,
sleeping soundly envisioning in a visioner-loaded, serene Umudike, Nigeria.

A citation in Nature isn't small —
It's the world saying: "We used it all.
We stood where the remote visioner chose to see, envisioned,
And took the next step, thanks to thee,
the visioner in remote serene base here."

So celebrate with the sleeping visioner. The waste chased here and there
Now feeds ideas, not left to waste there and here.
From Umudike, Nigeria to Maputo's shore,
Science in remote base echoes — and wants more.
Nature has spoken. Didn't sleep to envision for nothing, but for many more.