The word bai has two distinct meanings: It can refer to a "yellow mist" of mineral dust that sweeps across East Asia. Or it can refer to a lush, swampy clearing in the heart of the Central African rainforest.
In East Asia, a bai is like a yellow haze caused by desert soil being lifted by wind from Central China and carried toward Japan, coating cities in a fine dust. But the more common use of bai is relevant to a completely different continent: It's a mineral-rich, marshy rainforest clearing in the Congo Basin of Central Africa. Such clearings are gathering places for African species like forest elephants, gorillas, and antelopes, who obtain essential nutrients from the soil. The word comes from the Ba'Aka language, where it literally means "clearing."