Is it not easy to see why we are greedy? Step out and listen to a river or a brook flowing over pebbles, gaze at the sunlight bounce off the snow on a mountain or stroll through a rainforest… you can’t have enough. It is in the nature of things to be greedy.

The tangy, hint-of-iodine scented ocean breeze is so good, yeh dil mange more; snow covered peaks can calm the mind, and a walk through the woods can uncover the amazing bounty of nature. Even a camel ride through desert sands, across vast and endless landscapes can have a miraculous effect — the mind slows down as it searches for nothing, because it begins to see the tremendous play of nature in something as simple as sand.

No two sand dunes are identical; no swirl in the wind is the same; no shadow in the sun has the same shape; it is mesmerising. But you have nothing to match it against in the barren landscape. It makes you look inwards. You discover that the real outdoors is within.

Meanwhile, in the world outside, the overwhelming richness of sights, textures, sounds, shapes and colours is never enough — you want to drink in more than what is around you. You want to spend another 10 minutes by the sea, another 20 looking at the mountains, another 30 in the forest.

If you are sailing on a river, and you are lucky enough to be in the moonlight, time slips by faster than the water in the wake of your boat. Sometimes, you wish time would stand still. Franklin Buchanan may have been right when he said, “There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” But this is not true when it comes to nature — there is enough to satiate even the most limitless form of greed. Fill your senses: There is no way to enjoy nature other than through extreme greed.

Dinesh KS is the co-founder of Wildcraft.

This is the first of a series linking the deadly sins with the outdoors.

Dinesh pens his thoughts on outdoor adventures in DNA. This article appeared in the DNA on Tuesday, August 4, 2009.

For the article in DNA, click here.