Perhaps H.H. Shaikh Zayid's greatest gift to future generations stemmed from something that he had learned as a child and a young man. Although he believed in the value and importance of building a great city in Abu Dhabi, he was most deeply a man of the open air, who loved riding, walking, or watching the forces of nature around him. There is no single word that fully describes those qualities. Perhaps, although it sounds sentimental, the closest we can come in English is to refer to is a penchant for the “joy” of nature. Yet if the natural world was to survive the pressures of civilization, it had to be protected and nurtured; he once said:

Shaikh Zayid saw ‘nature’ in very broad terms; it embraced the societies of both animals and human beings, and at its heart was the world of plants. He could see that nature parks and reserves could be useful, but that they were not sufficient in a world of growing and intrusive pollution. He saw human expression as a part of nature in his holistic approach. In particular, he regarded the writing and recitation of poetry as a central focus of traditional Arab culture that had to be kept alive and active.