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Just the other night, I had a dream about myself & two others as POWs (wearing tan clothes; their sexes weren't obvious, I got the impression of "a soldier before anything else"), in some foreign country (a bunch of tents in a jungle somewhere).
POWs likely represent aspects of yourself that are neigther male, nor female, but still a part of your psyche that are being held in bondage (or captivity) but a non-descript force within your life - some foreign country/jungle tends to mean something unfamiliar or something you do not understand or cannot relate to.
The POWs can also represent well disciplined creative skills within yourself that are being supressed by either a force within your ego or something within your regular life (ie job, parenthood, family, bad experiences etc.)
Alternatively these characters in a foreign country can represent mental aspects (memories, thoughts, desires) that have been dissociated (or removed) from your greater psyche and are being supressed in a part of your mind you do not understand. Soldiers do represent self discipline, the warrior self, duty, responsibility, things of that nature.
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We were just assigned cooking meals as part of our imprisonment and told to use whatever we could find. In the only storehouse with anything left in it, two of us went in and found it to be filled with nothing but potatoes, large boxes of them and... hundreds of what appeared to be those little red & white checkered paper fast food containers, all filled with half-eaten chips/fries.
This part seems to indicate that the oppressing force (who ever is holding you captive) is an aspect that in real life is making you do things or feel things that either you do not want to or normally would not. The potatoes in the general vernacular of the American public, can sometimes represent "couch potatoes" - laziness. If all you can eat are potatoes then you are filling yourself with "laziness".
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The two of us paused for a few seconds taking in the odd scene, then started talking about cooking. I commented on how I was pretty good at pancakes & waffles, while the other person said they weren't half bad at hash browns; whereupon we took a second look at the crates of potatoes to see they were all green. And growing quite well, even the (poorly cooked) half eaten ones. So we left in one of those sort of blurry dream transition things.
Here you show complancentcy towards the symbolism of the potatoes. Potatoes are one of those symbols that have no universal meaning. While an American might associate them with laziness, an Irishmen might associate them as a stapple of life, in which case the meaning changes from laziness to life and flurishing life at that. Because the potatoes seem vibrant and earthy green (I agree with esoterica about the element earth factoring in your dream through potatoes) I think they may actually represent life and your captors are perhaps a necessary evil that allows you to flourish in life. In one sense your captures may represent self-restraint.
However, there is also a dark side to the equation. Its possible that this self restraining force is really keeping from succeeding at your maximum potential. That these potatoes may hint at a life of barely scraping to get buy. Its also possible this force may be keeping you from dealing with certain issues in life and thus the potatoes represent a meager quality of life, one that for the time being you are content to live with, but ultimately having nothing but potatoes to eat is depressing, imo, no matter how good they may be.
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Which re-emerged with the three of us talking with the commander of the place: a large & obese man, half asleep with a woman, surrounded by guards.
This has some clearly deffined and text book symbolism that probably shares common meaning from one culture to another. This character shows a domminating, even oppressive, masculine aspect that is very glutteonus and probably amoral. He may perhaps be related to either your personallity or your self image, it could also represent how you see men in your life.
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I then proceeded to explain how the remaining food supply was inedible (the potatoes were imported and unknown to them) and asked about the fast-food containers. The commander explained that the officers would often get food from a nearby town, delivering whatever they didn't eat to the severely depleted food stores. One of the other POWs then went into the details of how potatoes were part of the nightshade family of plants, etc. etc. I woke up about then.
This is yourself trying to reason and rationalize your right to equal existance with a tyrrant in place. Its obvious to me that you think nothing is going to change because no matter what approach you take this domminating aspect is not going to change.
Over all I'd say the dream really hints at issues with men (perhaps a bad father, or husband even a society that is over all sexist and emmasculates you as a woman, makes you feel like a prisoner with little hope for anything but a meager life, just scrapping to get buy). It might also represent an inner conflict you are having with your own masculine nature, perhaps it is oppressive to other parts of your being.