My part-time gardener, Lenge, came to the door today, all excited and definitely out of character.  “Madame, madame!  Le serpent!”  He motioned for me to follow him.  I grabbed my camera and did.

He took me down the gravel path a bit, where two other gardeners were standing around watching.  He pointed to the green snake on the ground.  Green mamba, I thought instinctively.  Because they’re around, they’re dangerous, and this guy was definitely green.

I stepped forward to get a better look.  The snake turned towards me just a bit.  The three Congolese guys jumped backwards.  Very helpful they would be in a pinch, I thought.  But I wasn’t within striking distance, and darn it I wanted that picture.  I stepped forward again and snapped this shot.

My amateur research online shows a Green Mamba that matches this description exactly.  But I shipped the photo off to our resident doctor and herpetologist, who answered that it looks like the Angolan Green snake – in his words “harmless but can put up a good fight”!