Part 2/16:
Growing up in a kampung—an old village—meant playing among plantations and farms, engaging in hide-and-seek in lush guava and Ramadan trees, experiences that fostered a love for greenery and the environment. These memories fueled a desire to preserve Singapore’s tropical charm, aligning with the vision championed by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1963, who envisioned Singapore as a tropical garden city. Efforts to cultivate greenery soon became essential, especially given the harshness of urban structures that needed to be softened by nature.