My fascination with soils and the natural world becomes alive in fractals. A while ago, I went out for an evening walk - roamed across the fields and wandered around in the woods. This text is what I came up with when I returned home. Inescapable wisdom, which the land silently, yet ever so kindly, shared. Finally, I understood: No species can escape its own cosmology. The state of the world is reflected in every organism, no matter its intention. An ode to the Earth.
The soil on the fields
Rock solid it is
Its structure: a clump
No aggregation left
A surface of concrete
I wonder:
Is he still alive?
My ankles twist and turn
Left to right – right to left
As I cross the land
I went out for an evening walk
As I so often do
To gaze at the spectacle of the sky
And the setting sun
To lose myself in the pattern of clouds
And let the wind play with my hair
He longs for it
As much as I embrace his caressing
A sigh escapes my lips
Directed at the wind
The elements
The natural world
She is what keeps me alive
But am I still thoroughly grounded?
A step forward
The soles of my shoes dare touch the soils
No…
The soil does not crumble
It does not even move or compact any further
Where is its fluffiness gone?
Barefoot walking
Across this piece of land would be: impossible
A painful unpleasantness for tender skin
My friend
The soil
He looks sad
Tears dwell up
It makes me cry to see him in this state
Broken ground
Compared to the sky he is not free
The soil has become a slave
Under the hand of man
Tortured by his machinery
Abused to produce
Sugar beet for fructose-enriched products
Wheat grains for flour
Maize for biofuel
All despite that…
He is such a special of a kind
A perched brown earth
Born from aeolian loess
Sediment that bears no stone
Calcareous grains that once were fertile
And leave a loamy smear upon gentle touch
The soil
He would be able to nourish us
In healthier ways
Reality check
How can the human species be healthy and well
If the soil is not?
If the environment
The elements
The Earth
Are not?
A fact
Comprehended
I cannot
I am not able to
I continue to cry
Let my tears drop to the ground
And water the soil
Nourish him with my pain
And let him know that there is a human who cares.
It was some long time ago
When I started to become sensitised
Mongolia in 2016
There was a fence
Cutting the landscape into halves
A semi-desert environment
Vastness
Emptiness
So much space
And: plastic bags
They were caught
Dangling in that fence
An analogy
Of our human footprint on Earth
Out there
Right there
In one of the least densely populated countries
So, why am I still so surprised?
Pain and love
Ever since
For the soil, no matter where
In Germany
In New Zealand
In Mongolia
The soil is my brother
Mother Earth my sister
And the natural elements
My family
The soil and I
We are closest
I feel him. I hear him. I sense him
Fascination
Not that I would fully understand him
But he is there
Hidden in his underground world
A king whose kingdom was teeming with life
So beautiful
So complex
So intricate
Science claims
Soil to be
The most complex biomaterial on Earth
I do not understand
How on Earth
Can humans then be so unappreciative
Of nature
Of the soil underneath our very feet
?
Am I weird
?
Because
Soil degradation makes me cry
Because
I feel physical pain
In my body
Real somatic sensations
A result
From my connection to the land
I know
Fractured
No matter where I go
So much love
So much pain
Most my life
I tried to be
A protector of the soil
Kaitiaki – a guardian
To make a difference
Truly
I believed I would
Thought that illness would not hit me
For that
I worked for the sake of nature
Feeling her
Sensing her pain
More than others seemed to do
But
I hit the ground
Too
A hard realisation
My love
To the soil, to nature
It did not protect me
Good or bad
Ambitious or not
Green or black
Affected are we
All
Differentiation there is not
No one is excluded
Anymore
From
Feeling Earth´s pain
Unaware
Most of us are
Still
It does not matter
The pain is there
Alive
All around and inside
Us
Oh!
Soils on the fields
Winds in the skies
Waters in the streams
Stars in space
Hear my wish
For that let humans feel
Again
Let them tune into your wisdom
Let them become
Aware
Of your organic flow
Let them awaken
Their senses
To re-connect
With the elements
With the natural world
With you
Earth
Let your pain be felt
Let us transform
Let love for life blossom once again
Without degrading it and us any further
Let us value. Indulge. Embrace. Rewild
Be
Unearthed
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