SOCOTRA, YEMEN 12°27’59.4”N 53°47’40.6”E
“The idea is to show how to find magic in the simplest, most ordinary things: a ray of sunshine, smoke, steam from a cup of tea, a leaf under your feet, and so on. I want to show how beautiful everything you already have is.”
Continuing with the weird and wonderful, Socotra is home to 190 species of butterfly, 600 species of insects, and 22 species of lizards, the majority of which can be found nowhere else on earth. It’s also the holiday home for migratory birds of all shapes, shades, and sizes, including flamingos, egrets, herons, and gulls. But today’s challenges are catching up with the land that time forgot. Non-native grazing animals, notably goats that support the archipelago’s human population of around 50,000, are munching and trampling their way to dominance, destroying young and fragile native residents in the process. “One of the biggest problems on the island is the goats,” explains Kristina. “They eat almost all the young dragon and bottle trees. You rarely see young shoots of these amazing plants.” This challenge, at least, can be tackled locally. Island residents opened a plant nursery to nurture young shoots, protecting them from the hungry mouths of goats and other domesticated animals. Once the trees are strong enough which can take many years due to their exceptionally sluggish growth rate—they are moved into the wild to positively support the island’s ecosystem. But the greater—and altogether more existential—challenge for Socotra is climate change. Despite the ingenious adaptations of the native flora and fauna, rising heat and sea levels are battles Socotra and its plants and animals are not winning. Despite lying at the mercy of strong monsoon winds, Socotra rarely suffered cyclones. But in 2015, two incredibly strong and destructive cyclones battered the archipelago, dumping too much rain for the landscape to cope with and winds so intense they destroyed up to 30% of Socotra’s trees. Is this a sign of things to come? Extreme weather events are linked to warming oceans and climate change. What could this mean for Socotra and its human, animal, and plant life? For now, Socotra continues to provide an otherworldly escape for up to 2,000 tourists a year. Holiday accommodation and facilities are sparse. But that’s part of the appeal. Socotra is a release. It’s a place to change your perspective, slow down, and reconnect with nature. “Nature is a real salvation for me,” says Kristina. “I go to Socotra to rest my eyes and soul.” Kristina has a photo project called Simple Magical Things . “The idea is to show how to find magic in the simplest, most ordinary things: a ray of sunshine, smoke, steam from a cup of tea, a leaf under your feet, and so on. I want to show how beautiful everything you already have is.” On Socotra, those simple, magical things are like something from a fantasy novel, a fairytale from a mirror world, where everything is familiar, yet not quite as it seems. What’s ordinary in Socotra is magical everywhere else.
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MOTHER VOLUME THREE
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