丹麥作家Isak Dinesen（一八八五至一九六二）在個人傳記「遠離非洲」Out of Africa（一九三七）中寫她在非洲十七年的生活，「獵殺鬣蜥的反省」即出自此書。
鬣蜥在河床石頭上曬太陽，長相難看皮膚顏色卻像閃閃發亮的寶石。一有人靠近，鬣蜥就發出嘶嘶的聲音爬離開，然而石頭上仍映射出蔚藍、翠綠和亮紫的色彩，好像是彗星畫過天際，燦爛的星尾停留在空中。我曾獵殺過鬣蜥，我想用牠的皮革做成漂亮的飾品，結果卻大出乎我所料讓我畢生難忘。我們之間只隔著幾步，但當我碰到牠的身體時，色彩已瞬間褪逝，化成如水泥般的灰暗，教我不勝欷噓。活的鬣蜥皮膚發出光華奪目的絢爛，完全是因為體內流著鮮活的血液，一旦火燄熄滅生命逝去，牠只像一個沙袋毫無生氣。我永遠記得我殺了這隻鬣蜥。
As I went up to him, where he was lying dead upon his stone, and actually while I was walking the few steps, he faded and grew pale, all color died out of him as in one long sigh, and by the time that I touched him he was grey and dull like a lump of concrete. It was the live impetuous blood pulsating within the animal, which had radiated out all that glow and splendor. Now that the flame was put out, and the soul had flown, the iguana was as dead as a sandbag.
有一次我看見一個土著少女戴著皮製手鐶，上面點綴著各種藍綠色的珠子，色澤由綠、淺藍到深藍。手鐶彷彿從少女的手臂吸取氣息，展露出非凡的生命力，我立即商請友人為我買下。當我一戴上手鐶，手鐶卻顯得死氣沉沉，變成俗氣便宜的小飾物。我領悟到原來這是色澤造成的效果，土耳其玉般藍綠色的珠子搭配土著少女泥煤黑陶般生氣勃勃的膚色，兩相輝映才創造出手環的活力。
It was an extraordinarily live thing; it seemed to draw breath on her arm, so that I wanted it for myself, and made Farah buy it from her. No sooner had it come upon my own arm than it gave up the ghost. It was nothing now, a small, cheap, purchased article of finery. It had been the play of colors, the duet between the turquoise and the "negre"-that quick, sweet, brownish black, like peat and black pottery, of the Native's skin,-that had created the life of the bracelet.
在我蒼白的手臂上，失去光澤的手鐶好像高貴的物品被人侵犯，也像真理被壓制那種悲傷的感覺，這讓我回想起兒時讀過的書中有位英雄這麼說：「我征服了一切，但我四周都是墳墓。」居住在孕育不同物種的異國時，你要想一想獵殺這些珍奇生物後，牠們還有價值嗎？所以在東非請絕對不要獵殺鬣蜥。
I looked at my pale hand and at the dead bracelet, it was as if an injustice had been done to a noble thing, as if truth had been suppressed.
So sad did it seem that I remembered the saying of the hero in a book that I had read as a child: "I have conquered them all, but I am standing amongst graves." In a foreign country and with foreign species of life one should take measures to find out whether things will be keeping their value when dead. To the settlers of East Africa I give the advice: "Shoot not the Iguana."