Two years after making history as the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, Kenyan eco-warrior Wangari Maathai is restless and setting her sights on a new environmental challenge.
As the world awaited the Friday's announcement of this year's winner -- Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank -- the politician and activist was here near her home village launching her memoirs in the shadow of her latest project: Mount Kenya.
The snow-capped, cloud-shrouded volcanic 5,199-metre (17,053-foot) peak that sits on the equator is Kenya's highest mountain and a heady inspiration for Maathai, her book "Unbowed: One Woman's Story," and her future plans.
"Unbowed" recounts the highs and lows of a tumultuous life -- from being beaten in rallies-turned-riots to save the country's green space to baring all to demand the release of political prisoners, and eventual electoral and international success as a green advocate, lawmaker and Nobel laureate.
"I hope it will help people discover the joy of a life spent in the service of others rather than in the service of self," Maathai, 66, told AFP in a recent interview in Ihithe, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Nairobi.
"I hope it will inspire those who will experience it, especially the young, to explore and utilise the power inside them and the opportunities which come their way, whoever they are and wherever they live," she said.
The forests around her native village and Mount Kenya have been major beneficiaries of her Green Belt Movement, which has planted millions of trees around Africa to promote sustainable development and human rights.
But the mountain today -- a cauldron of crime, Christianity and traditional tribal beliefs -- is threatened by charcoal burners, marijuana growers and herders she says are destroying its majesty and mystique with rabid abandon.
"Our people believed that God existed atop that mountain but the missionaries came and tampered with that belief," Maathai said, swatting away a swarm of vicious brown safari ants trooping up her legs.
"Now it pains me that the mountain that is a source of more than 30 rivers has been invaded by marijuana-growers and other people keen on ruining the environment," she said.
"We shall not give up until the mountain and all other parts of the environment are well protected," said Maathai, referring back to the title of her book that will be translated into nine languages. As Kenya's arguably most famous woman ambled along a dirt road in her trademark vivid green dress after the formal launch of "Unbowed," villagers, some of whom have walked for hours, rush to greet her.
"We believe very much in what this lady says," said tribal elder Joseph Ng'ang'a. "We have seen her go through thick and thin. She is a very strong woman."
Maathai, meanwhile, walked on, looking longingly at the lush green slopes of the mountain that towered over her childhood and reflecting on other inspirations that have guided her life. "I like Tiger Woods," she said abruptly, referring to the US golf legend. "I like his quest for perfection.
"I also like Mother Teresa," said Maathai. "Her willingness to help was legendary. I draw many lessons from her." But she is coy about her possible return to the senior echelons of policy making, having run once unsuccessfully to become Kenya's first female president, and then served as deputy environment minister. "I will respond to the wishes of the people," she said.
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