I stood still at the mouth of the cave.
Stalactites, like angry teeth hung ready.
The dark hungry maw open before me.
The sound of my voice as I cried
out disappeared within.

Scared and shaking, I knew not what to do.
I was excited by the possibilities
but the darkness devoured me.
Like a giant throat ready to
swallow me whole, it waited.

Moss and wetness I could see,
and menace could I feel.
What it held, I could not fathom.
I closed my eyes, stretched
out my arms and stepped inside.

One of the very few autobiographical texts that Leonardo Da Vinci wrote was about the time in early childhood when he discovered a cave and his fear and curiosity about what lay inside. We can only imagine what he thought.