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One quick glance at Ariffin Mamat's namecard will tell you he is a man with a strong corporate background.

Over the years, he had served many companies as a human resources executive and is currently attached with a prawn breeding company in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

But who would have thought the 54-year-old also has an artistic side - a poet, chronicling his most personal and private moments.

"I have been working abroad since 2000 and my work takes me to more than 40 countries but writing is always close to me," he said.

"When I was younger, I used to accompany my mother to tap rubber. There, I used to harvest some small, tiny dreams which I turned to reality as I grew up. This was one of them," he said during the launch of his dual-language poem anthology titled Echo of Silence and Masih di Sini at Impiana KLCC, yesterday.

The volumes are a compilation of Ariffin's poems from 2002 till present.

Ariffin, who was born and raised in the little known village Kampung Kemubu, Kelantan, said it was his father's death when he was 10 years old that motivated him to become a writer.

"My father's death turned me into a reflective person. Thus, my poems are a reflection of life and its colours," he said.

"I wrote a host of them throughout my travels. Usually when I am alone, such as on a plane or at night after work."

Ariffin said poems played a major part in his life, so much so that his proposal to his wife of 28 years, Siti Nuraishah Talib, was in the form of a poem.

After the launch, Media Prima group chairman Datuk Johan Jaffar stressed the importance of upholding Malay literature.

"We don't realise the value of our own literature. We have to give people like Ariffin Mamat a chance so they can show us what they have to offer," he said.

Ariffin also blogs at www.ariffinmamat.net (article and picture from Malay Mail)