Series: Waterworld
Title: Black Mud Taketh Her Away
While drifting slowly and silently by upon my Kayak, down a shallow mangrove creek, at a point where the channel almost tapered off to land I came across a muddy bank with mangrove knee, pencil and cone roots exposed against the surrounding black mud. As I studied one piece of this mosaic of mangrove, I realized I was looking at the representation of acceptance. I saw with absolute clarity, the figure of a young woman, wearing a hat, her head bowed, her arms pulled behind her back as if she was in handcuffs or chains. She stands braced, yet calm, in a sort of benign acceptance of her fate, awaiting the black mud that will eventually entomb her. In WaterWorld, all inhabitants face a continual struggle against rising waters, flash floods, gurgling, seeping mud and silt that consumes all but the highest of structures.
Trapped. With no hope of rescue from a denuded, broken and waterlogged planet. A fate all humanity faces if we don’t face up to our environmental responsibilities.
Mangrove systems stabilize and protect coastlines, provide shelter and nutrients for a large variety of marine life. And yes every year great swathes are cleared for yet more unneeded beach resorts and condo’s and for shrimp farms to feed the human demand for cheap shrimp that can only be described as a shrimp feeding frenzy!
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