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Coming back to the carob trees-story

In Crete, a true magic happened. By meeting Korina Miliaraki, we got the chance to learn about the great value of carob trees, which they are willing to share with us.

Thanks to Korina and a network of farmers and experts who are actively promoting, growing, breeding and cultivating them, carob trees are “coming back“ and bringing good to our common future. We visited Korinna’s friends, “carob activists“, old carob trees, and a carob forest in southern Crete. It became obvious there that carob trees don't need much water to grow and bear fruit, which can be eaten right off the tree. Carob trees can live for over 1000 years old and regenerate in a similar way to the olive tree.



You can take a 7-minute inside look at the importance of carob trees for our future.

 OR read/view it here 

I had a very special relationship with trees, especially one that we grew up with. I had my branch, like my home. The tree was my home, my second home, and one of the branches was my room and my place. I used to dream about being there, most of the time I wanted to be there. I felt that all the information that was around me came to me in a magical way when I was on that branch. I learned the world there. The tree was very alive, I had a dialogue with it because it was something more than a home. We created a very beautiful relationship. And another thing is that because I was always doing 'acrobatics', I felt that there was no way I could fall, because I had a relationship with a tree, the tree also helped me not to fall. And sometimes the people from outside would ring the bell because they were afraid to look at me when I was doing very difficult acrobatics when I was very little, and my mother would come out and people would say, "Please, your child is going to fall", but she would always tell them, "She is not going to fall, there is no way". She always trusted me too much, and my mother and my father too, both of them. I never fell.

I remember sometimes my grandfather was... I liked to see the shadow, I was there, and I was looking at the shadow when the sun was moving, and every moment was different than the other, because I was looking down and the shadows were changing all the time. And I had this feeling that I also have here, that I was moving with the earth all the time, but on the tree. We were travelling and the shadow was giving me this feeling of travelling. But I wasn't travelling alone. And I feel it very strongly here, in this house, too. But I'm here and all, we're moving with the house and with the tree in the universe. And if you have a very good relationship with the surroundings, with the environment, it is really very important. It makes you feel stronger, because you don't feel alone, you're part of the environment. And the environment, it has to do with... You are a part of it, and you all go together. I have this feeling of unity. It was very strong that feeling, very strong.

About the teacher - father

He was first of all an ecologist, before ecology existed. Because he was a chemist and he loved nature. He admired nature, the trees, the flowers, the rivers, the sea... He made me have these strong feelings about it and to feel part of it and respect it. He was against all the chemicals in the house, for cleaning the dishes, the shampoos and everything. He made everything for us to avoid all the chemicals. He was the first one to put up the solar panel and everyone was visiting us to see it. We had a garden and I loved the flowers. I had a very good relationship with the flowers and all the plants and the animals too. I loved them. He was the first one in Crete to make bottled wine and export it. At that time he had taken the prices from the French. (The factory is still run by his cousins).

I hated school. I didn't feel good. I always felt that I was outside the system, the education system. First I wanted to be an acrobat, then I decided to be a minister of education. When our teacher asked us what we wanted to be when I was six or seven, I said Minister of Education. And she asked me, "Why, my child, do you want to be..." and I said, "Because I want to close all the schools and make the next generation not suffer from this system, the school, than we have now."

So I decided to come and work with him and to decide what to do, to see. It's like giving yourself an exam, because you always have to come back to your place to see exactly who you are, after a period of travelling, learning, doubting. And then you have to come to a new battle with yourself.To decide who you are after all these experiences. And I came here and I worked with him. And then through that I decided exactly what I wanted. So that's why I came there. I found my centre.

What connected me to the carob was the carob mill, it was Panormos and the carob mill. I loved trees, I loved carob, but then what made me focus on it was Panormos, and then the next step was the carob mill and the carob mill told me, it was like telling me, this building, its history showed me the way to focus on the carob. It is full of memories, this building, I started from my needs. My need was for this building, it's very nice, to be restored and to be a cultural centre, because we didn't have any cultural centres on the north coast of Crete. Why not create a cultural centre here in a very beautiful village by the sea. It was my need and the need of others, and it worked very well, because people came from all over Crete for the many unique performances that took place here, or for seminars, and also from all over the world. Apart from cultural events, there were also conferences about the future of Europe, the environment... Many seminars, many lectures, congresses. People come from all over, different kinds of people, that's another thing I like. Connecting different kinds of social interaction. People from the cities, people from the countryside, shepherds, farmers and children from schools.

Why carob trees? Because the carob tree is a very important tree, historically, because it saved the population during the Second World War. It is important in very extreme conditions, historical conditions. When nothing else can help you, then, the carob tree appears and says, ”I will save you”. Do you understand? It is too important for me. And I felt as if I had a carob tree in front of me and I was talking to it, and I'm telling him – ”I feel that you have saved us and we have to do everything we can to give you back your lost value, to give you back your lost value, because it's too valuable. It has capabilities that no other tree has. And even in the extreme conditions of climate change, it can save us. If no other tree survives, the carob tree will. And there is something else. This is the only one, the only tree that also gives us flour. Not just sugar, but flour.

Part of the vision is to create the carob mill and, through the carobs and our efforts for the return of the carob, to become the reference point of Mediterranean Europe for the carob. To bring together all the countries of Mediterranean Europe for the return of the carob, to give it more value. I would love to create here a carob foundation for culture, gastronomy and research. And to have a festival here every year.

Manolis Loukakis, breeding expert

                     Kostas Karatzis planting new trees                                                                                                                                    

Manolas Iliakis is devoted to the cultivation of the land, he loves trees and although he is an architect/engineer and has worked in the public sector, he is first and foremost a farmer.

To develop a cultivation on the island, and not only on the island, but on the island because we're here, by giving the farmers the motivation and also helping them in their search, giving them the right information on how to cultivate, the right way to cultivate, what kind of carob tree would be right, and also giving them the motivation to create new products of food and whatever.

About "equality"

In order to survive, we human beings have to be serious and understand that we don't have differences, we're all human beings and we have to live equally on this planet, and we have respect the environment.

We have the same rights everywhere. And to stop all this moving of the population because of wars. So maybe you'll say that I'm a romantic but I'm very practical, very realistic.

 And in this effort the carob tree is going to help us, and I know it.

It is estimated that there are 33 million olive trees in Crete! And the number is still growing... A monoculture! Carob and chestnut trees, which saved them from hunger during the Second World War, are now the exception.

And one of the exceptions is Kostas' farm, where he has planted many young carob trees that are alredy giving fruit.

I'm trying to do my best and I don't have, as you put it, any expectations - "So I'm trying to do this so that tomorrow I'll have this result, otherwise I'm not doing anything..." I've been doing this all my life: trying, trying, trying, trying, because there's no other way. And if something good happens, I'll be happy. If not, I'll still try my best.

Kostas Karatzis is the great success story of Korina's dream to bring back the carobs tree. Kostas lives alone, but his enthusiasm, positive attitude and exceptional results are a great role model for others to learn and plant carob trees in Crete. He works for 10 and also makes products from carob - carob syrup (the best in Crete) and carob brandy. 

Corina on carob syrup: "My mother takes one spoon every day, every morning. This is medicine. And for me it's very important, because this carob syrup is not just made from carob pods, it's made from the whole carob and the seeds. The seeds have proteins.

Kostas produces all the food himself - from olive oil, vegetables, fruit, cheese, dried fruit to wine... And when he has the chance to host someone as he hosted us... A magical experience!

Something about the carob. AsI was trying to find out more and more (I'm always searching), I found a rabbi from 300 AD. He was living in Palestine. He lived in Palestine. So he was walking down the street and he saw somebody planting a new carob tree, a very small one, and he asked him, "Why are you trying to do this, do you think you're going to live so many years to eat from this carob tree?" and the man replied, "No, because I'm taking the carobs from another tree that my ancestors planted for me," and he said, "OK," and he walked away. And after a while the light was very strong, he didn't go into a cave, he sat on a rock, he slept, and then he returned. And on his way back he saw in the same place a huge carob tree full of carobs and somebody who was picking the carobs. And he said, ”Hey you, are you the one who planted this tree,” and the man said, ”No, no, no, my ancestors did it for me,” and he realised that 54 years had passed while he was sleeping. So I went crazy when I found it,  and then this rabbi, Honi HaMe'agel is his name, in another place, in Palestine, it has to do with carobs this time. I don't know, there's a connection.

The Portuguese have a saying: ”Plant an olive tree for your children and a carob tree for your grandchildren."

more > CAROB TREE PHYSIOLOGY: GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION BIOLOGY


Manolis Loukakis, a professor of agronomy, an expert in breeding, teaching, a great connoisseur of carobs, species suitable for planting and grafting trees, and of Crete.

Nobody knows, I could say, because sometimes, even if something looks very dark or very pessimistic, there are moments, but everything can be changed, so we have to try. And if we're lucky in our lifetime to see a difference, to see this revolution that I believe in, there are moments, but even the environment and human beings together, we can change everything. I don't know if I'll be so lucky to see it, but I can tell you that I've seen it, in moments on a small scale. So if I have this experience of seeing it in moments, that means it can be done, so in that way I am an optimist, but I don't know if I will see it in my lifetime. Everything is possible. Even what we think is impossible now can be possible. But it can only be possible if some people are in the same line, find a way to connect with each other and have the same purpose, the same goal. And even unconsciously, to have the same way, without knowing it, but knowing it, if you understand. Even unconsciously, because there is a social unconsciousness that moves things.

Manos Babionitakis, an inventor of the carob milling machine. Before him there was no one in Crete to process carobs into 100% carob flower, which was vital for all the carob crops. 

We are all the same, made of the same material. It's all clear to me. There are no differences. From north to south, west to east, we're all human beings. White, yellow, I don't know what...

>> next steps – carob trees

 I have a feeling it's going to save us again. This time in a different way. When I have a dialogue with a carob tree, it has too many secrets and I ask it. "What are your secrets?" I'm going to find out what they are.

The virgin carob forest in Southeren Crete grows where no other plants can grow. The trees are old, but still small, and they regenerate naturally.


 

When I finished the proposal to the Ministry of Culture to include the carob tree in the list of intangible cultural heritage, I saw in my dream that I was on the carob tree and we were flying all over Europe, all over Mediterranean Europe, together, with the tree. I saw this dream and after that it was great because I did my best to write the proposal and then I felt like "now I've done it, I've done something" and I saw this dream. And I was looking at all the countries of Mediterranean Europe from above, and I felt like I was in that tree when I was very little, but I was flying with it!


In the end, I found out that we can't do anything without democracy. It's not ideal, but it's the minimum we could have, and we don't have it. Only wars. We use it in a way we don't mean. This will destroy the globe, the capital.


Revolution is our attempt to exist. For me it's our attempt to... It's very difficult to explain. Because we do what the others, society, tells us to do. The thing is to decide what we do ourselves, to find ourselves and to create the future that everyone wants. We have to find ourselves.


Art and culture are the most serious weapon to fight aagainst all this lack of thinking. It is our weapon; we have no other. What else can we do, force somebody? No, we must convince them, touch them, so art is a very nice way to do that. Because it gets directly to the heart, not to the mind, the mind follows.



My father was the first ecologist I ever met, before the ecology movement, he was an ecologist, a chemist, and he loved nature. He was the one who introduced me to the carob tree when I was little. He loved nature and trees. He was a chemist, but he was very well educated in everything - philosophy, archaeology, history and everything. He gave me the first carob and said, "Try it, it's better than any chocolate." So I ate it and I loved it, I loved it so much, you can't imagine. From that moment on I always looked at carob trees with great admiration because he taught me "This tree saved the population of Crete from starvation during the Second World War", so I felt an admiration..


But this food, this is a superfood, it is better than many others and for me the carob is the future. As a crop, as a food, and it is also very important for its pharmaceutical uses, it's fantastic. It has many things. And now we've started to concentrate in the carob tree, in order to help it, support it and make it known in the consciousness of the people. It's the coming back of the carob. It is so important to understand that. So, I've done a lot of things - congresses, meetings... I asked the cultivators to come here, to the carob mill. We set up a new institution, a society, an association called The Carob of Crete, made up of researchers, academics, cultivators and people from the culture. We started with the university, because I'm pushing things too much, and now we've started research, very serious research, on different types of carob trees in Crete with the universities, because I've found the best researchers. Not only from the University of Crete, but also from Athens, from the University of Athens, from the Demokritos Research Institute and also from other different institutions and universities in Greece. In April 2019 we had the first congress, a Mediterranean congress at the carob mill, and people from Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Egypt and Italy came here. We started a network for the return of the carob tree in Mediterranean Europe, because it's a Mediterranean tree. And now we are preparing the new one, the new congress.


 

Sometimes I feel like I'm having a dialogue with the carob, but I feel that it has so many secrets that I have to discover. That is the most important thing forme. But I think it hides some secrets that I have to find , so we have a very erotic relationship. I feel that.

Yes, I feel that. But not now, for many year. I'm afraid that if I talk more, I'm going to…

Carob cultivation is ecological by nature, because it doesn't need what the olive tree needs. It's everywhere, they can grow by themselves, without anything. Of course, if you help them, they would be... You can help them by cutting the branches to see if they have any diseases and sometimes by watering them, because they don't need too much. It's an alternative cultivation during the climate change. This is the most important thing, because they are self-sufficient, everywhere, even in very high temperatures. They can grow up to 800 metres at the highest.

The planting of olivetres is still for many the solution for agriculture, even price for oil /L is low as ca 3 EUR for L and everybody complains since the threat of deseses growth and sprajing with cwemicals is a "must" . Ther is also a latent fear that some deses can be a catastropy for monoculture of 33 mio trees on the island  

Olive trees, carob trees... I love them both, but carob is the symbol of survival, against everything, all the extreme conditions. And that is more important to me. And you can't survive on olives, but you can survive on carobs. To survive with olives, we have to make olive oil, we have to have a process, but carob gives you directly what you need, that's why it saved a population. But yes, this is fire again, preventing fire. A lot of places would burn... It helps the soil to be stronger. I don't know, it's magic. It's something that nature created, it gives us this and I'm so excited about it. I feel it's my duty to do everything I can for it. I feel that way because it's a tree that nobody looks at, nobody focuses on, and I have to show everybody that it's so important. The most important tree.

It is a symbol of survival.

Kostas Karatzis farm is just over the heal of young olive growth. Carob trees don't need any spraying... Drought is not a problem as they can root very deep, even 15 metres... And the fruit is rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. It's a superfood and its use for health benefits goes back 4,000 years to ancient Greece..


As a culture, the Greeks, we have two different aspects, wings. One is Apollo and the other is Dionysus. So these two have educated us, we have been trained to be both of them.

PS: If I had money, I would have done a lot more. I'm thinking of making the first pilot film and then going to Arte (TV channel) or Greek TV, for example, and telling them this is the first one and if you like it, finance the others. Let's do it together. I have the whole scenario, everything.

The team of this story : Korina Miliaraki, Ida Glušič, Ivana Petan, BB 

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Produced by MEDLand project/BB : photo, reserch, intervievs by BB, conections organized by Korina Miliaraki, WGO filming photos by Aida Glušič, production assistant Ivana Petan

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Posted by bojanb
7 months ago

Coming back to the carob trees-story

In Crete, a true magic happened. By meeting Korina Miliaraki, we got a chance to learn about the great value of carob trees, which they are willing to share with us.

Thanks to Korina and a network of farmers and experts who actively promote, grow, breed and farm it, the carob tree is “coming back“ and bringing good to our common future. We visited Korinna’s friends, “carob activists“, old carob trees, and a carob forest in southern Crete. It became obvious there, that carob tree doesn't need much water to grow and bear fruits which can be eaten directly from the tree. Carob trees can be over 1000 years old and regenerate similar to the olive tree.



you can lo-ok 7 min short inside view on carob inportance for our future

 OR read/view it here 

I had a very special relation with trees, especially with one  that we grew up together. I had my branch, like home. The tree was my home, my second home, and one of the branches was my room and my place. I was always dreaming how to be there, most of the time I wanted to be there. I had a feeling that all the information that was around was coming to me in a magic way when I was on the branch. I was learning the world there. The tree was very alive, I had a dialog with the tree, because it was something more than a home We created a very nice relationship. And another thing is, because I was making ”acrobats” always, I had a feeling there was no way to fall, because I had relation with a tree, the tree was also helping me not to fall down. And sometimes the people from outside were ringing the bell, because they were afraid looking at me when I was making very difficult ”acrobats” when I was very little.My mother was coming out and people said ”Please, your child is going to fall down”, but she was always telling them, ”She's not going to fall down, there is no way”. She trusted me, always, too much, and my mother and my father also, both of them. I never fell.

I remember, sometimes my grandfather was,....I liked to see the shadow, I was there, and I was looking at the shadow when the sun was moving and every moment was different than the other, because I was looking down and the shadows were changing all the time. And I had this feeling, that I also have here, that I was moving with the earth all the time, but on the tree. We were traveling and the shadow was giving me this feeling of traveling. But I wasn't traveling alone. And I feel it also here also, in this house, very strongly. But I'm here and all,  we're moving with the house and with the tree in the universe. And if you have a very good relationship with surrounding, with the environment, it is really very important. It makes you feel stronger, because you don't feel alone, you're part of the environment. And the environment, it has to do... you are a part of it, and you go all together. I have this feeling of unification. It was very strong that feeling, very strong.

about the ”teacher”-fother

He was first of all an ecologist, before ecology existed. Because he was a chemist and he loved nature. He was admiring nature, the trees, the flowers, the rivers, the see... He made me have these strong feelings about this and to feel part of it and to respect it. He was against all the chemists in the house, for cleaning the dishes, the shampoos and everything. He was making everything for us, to avoid all the chemicals. He was the first one who put up the solar panel and everyone was coming to the house to see it. We had a garden, and I loved the flowers. I had a very good relationship with flowers and all the plants, and animals also. I loved them.

He was the first one in Crete to make bottled wine and export it. He had taken prices from the French at that time. (The factory is still being run by the cousins.)

I hated school. I didn't feel good. I was always feeling like I was outside the system, the education system. At first, I wanted to be an acrobat, then I decided to be the minister of education. When our teacher when I was six or seven asked us what we wanted to be I said minister of education. And she asked me ”Why, my child, do you want to be...” and I said – ”Because I want to close all the schools and make the next generation not suffer from this system, the school than we now have”.

So, I decided to come and work with him and to decide what to do, to see. It is like giving exams to yourself, because you always must return to your place to see exactly who you are, after a period when you're traveling, you're learning, you're doubting. And then you must come to have a new battle with yourself. To decide who you are after all these experiences. And I came here, and I worked with him. And then I decided through this what exactly I wanted. So that's why I came to (). I found my center.

What connected me to the carob was the carob mill, it was Panormos and the carob mill. I loved trees, I loved carobs, but then what made me focus on that was Panormos and then the next step was carob mill and the carob mill told me, it was like telling me, this building, its' history showed me to way to focus on the carob. It is full of memories, this building.I started from my needs. My need was that this building, it is very nice to be restored, and to be a culture centre, because we didn't have any culture centers on the north coast of Crete. Why not create a cultural center here in a very nice village next to the sea. It was mine and others' needs, and it worked like that very nice, because people from all Crete came to many performances that were unique and took place here, or seminars, and from all over the world also. Beside culture events also conferences about the future of Europe, environment ..many seminars, many lectures, congresses. People come from all over, different kinds of people, that's exactly another thing that I like. To connect different kinds of social interactions. People from the cities, people from the countryside, shepherds, farmers, and children from the schools.

Why carob trees. Because the carob tree is a very important tree, historically, because it saved the population through the second world war. It is important in very extreme conditions, historical conditions. When nothing else can help you, then, the carob appears and says ”I will save you”. Do you understand? It is too important for me. And I felt like if I have a carob tree in front of me and talk to it, and I'm telling him – ”I have a feeling that you saved us and we have to do whatever we can to give you your lost value, to give you back your lost value, because it is too valuable”. It has possibilities that no other trees have. And even in the extreme climate change conditions, it can save us. When no other tree will survive, the carob tree will. And also, there is something else. This is the only one, the only tree, which gives us flour also. Not only sugar, but also flour.

Part of the vision is to create the carob mill and create through the carobs and our efforts for the coming back of the carob to be a reference point of Mediterranean Europe for the carob. Connecting all the countries of the Mediterranean Europe for the coming back of the carob, giving it more value. I would love to create here a carob foundation for culture, gastronomy and research. And every year to have a festival with festival here.

Manolis Loukakis expert for breeding 

                                                            Kostas Karatzis  is planting new trees                                                                                                                                    

Manolas Iliakis - is devoted to land cultivation, he loves trees, and although he is an architect-engineer and worked in the public sector, but most of all he is a farmer

To develop a cultivation on the island and not only on the island, but on the island because we're here, by giving the motives to the farmers and also help them through their searches, giving them the right information how to cultivate, the right way to cultivate and which type of carob tree would be right and give them also the motives to create new products of food and whatever.

(about ”equally”)

         In order to survive, the human beings, we have to be serious and to understand that we don't have differences, we're all human beings and we must live equally on this planet, and we must respect the environment.

       We have the same rights everywhere. And to stop all this moving of the population because of the wars. So maybe you're going to tell me that I'm a romantic but I'm very practical, very realist.

        And in this effort the carob tree is going to help us, and I know it.

The estimate is that 33 Mio olive trees live on Crete ! and number is still growing..Monoculture! Carob and Chestnut trees that save them of hunger in II WW are now an exception

AND one of exeptions is Kostas farm, where he planted many jung carob trees and are alredy giving froots 

 I'm trying to do my best and I don't have, in a way that you put it, expectations – ”So I'm trying to do this so tomorrow I'm going to have this result, otherwise I don't do anything...” – no. My whole life I'm doing this: I'm trying, trying, trying, trying, because there is no other way. And if something good is going to happen, I'll be happy. If not, I'll still try to do my best.

Kostas Karatzis is big sucess story of Korinas dreams to bring carobs back. Kostas lives alone but his inthusiasem, positive atitude and ekscetional results are a great rool model for others to learn and plant carob trees on Kreta. Alone he does work for 10, also doing products from carob- carob syrup (best in Kreata) and carob brandy 

Corina, about carob syrup. My mother takes one spoon every day, every morning. This is medicine. 

And for me it's very important, because this carob syrup is made not only with the carob (fruit?), it's made by all the carob and the seeds. The seeds have proteins.

All food from olive oil, vegetables, fruits chees, dry fruts, vine.. he produce himself- and if Kostas has a chance to host somebody as he hosted us ..a magic experiance !

Something about the carob. While I was trying to find out more and more things, I'm always searching, I found a rabbi of the 300 years after Christ. He was living in Palestine. So, he was walking in the street and he saw somebody planting a new Carob tree, a very small one, and he asked him ”Why are you trying to do this, you think you're going to live so many years to be feeding from this carob tree”, and the man answered ”No, because I'm taking the carobs of another tree that my ancestors have planted for me” and he said ”Ok” and he left. And after a while the light was very strong, he didn't go to a cave, but he sat on a rock, he slept, and then he returned. And on the way back he saw in the same place a huge carob tree full of carobs and somebody who was picking the carobs. And he said, ”Hey you, are you the same who planted this tree” and the man said ”No, no, no, my ancestors did it for me” and he realized that 54 years passed during his sleep. So, I got crazy when I found it, because, first () for another reason and then this rabbi, Honi HaMe'agel is his name, in a different place, in Palestine, it has to do with carobs this time. I don't know, there is a connection.

7 years. For the first, double of the olive tree. Olive tree- less years. That's why the Portuguese have a saying, ”Plant an olive tree for your children and a carob tree for your grandchildren”.

more>CAROB TREE PHYSIOLOGY: GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION BIOLOGY


Manolis Loukakis  a profesor of agronomy, an expert for breeding , teaching a great connoisseur of carobs, species suitable for planting and grafting trees and Crete

...nobody knows, I could say, because sometimes, even if something looks very dark or very pessimistic, there are moments, but everything can be changed, so we have to try. And if we're lucky in our lifetime to see a difference, to see this revolution that I believe in, there are moments, but even the environment and human beings together, we can change everything. I don't know if I'll be so lucky to see it, but I can tell you that I've seen it, in moments in a small scale. So, if I have this experience to see it in moments, that means that it can be done, so in this way I'm an optimist, but I don't know if in my lifetime I will see it. Everything can be done. Even the what now we think that is impossible, it can be possible. But it can be possible only if some people will be in the same line, will find a way to connect with each other and to have the same purpose, the same goal. And even unconsciously, to have the same way, without knowing it, but knowing it, if you understand. Even unconsciously, because there is a social unconsciousness that moves the thing.

Manos Babionitakis: an inventor of carob mill machine , before him there was nobady to proces carobs into 100% carob flower in Creta, wital for all that crop carob 

 We are all the same, from the same material. It's all clear to me. There are no differences. From the north to the south, to the west, to the east, we're all human beings. Whites, yellows, I don't know what...

>> next steps – carob trees

 I have a feeling that it's going to save us again. In a different way this time. If I have a dialog with a carob tree, it has too many secrets, and I'm asking it. ”What are your secrets?” I'll find out what they are.

virgine carob forest in Southeren Crete grows where no other plants can exist They are old trees, never the less small and regenarate here by nature. 


 

When I finished the proposal to the ministry of culture to be included in the list of intangible cultural heritage, I saw in my dream that I was on the carob tree and we were flying all over Europe, all over the Mediterranean Europe, together, with the tree. I saw that dream and it was great after because I did my best writing the proposal and then I felt so... ”Now I've done it, I've done something”, and I saw that dream. And I was looking from above all the countries of the Mediterranean Europe and I had a feeling like in that tree when I was very small, but I was flying with it!


Finally, I found out that without democracy we can't do anything. It is not the ideal, but it's a minimum that we could have, and we don't have. Only wars. We use it in a way that we don't mean it. This is going to destroy the globe, the capital.

 Revolution is our effort to exist. For me it's our effort to... it's very difficult to explain. Because we are doing what the others, the society is telling us. The thing is to decide what we do by ourselves, to find ourselves, and to create the future everyone wants to have. We have to find ourselves.

Art and culture are the most serious weapon to fight all these absences of thought. This is our weapon; we have no other. What else to do, to force somebody? No, to convince him, to touch him, so art is a very nice way. Because it gets directly to the heart, not the mind, the mind is following




My father was the first ecologist I ever met, before the ecology movement, he was an ecologist, chemist and he loved nature. He first introduced the carob tree to me. He was the one who introduced me to carob tree when I was the little. He was fond of nature and trees. He was a chemist, but he was very well educated in all the... philosophy, archaeology, history, and everything. He gave me the first carob and he said ”Try it, it's better than any chocolate”. So, I ate it and I loved it, I liked it so much, you can't imagine. From that moment I always look at the carob trees with great admiration because he taught me ”This tree saved the population of Crete during the second world war from the hunger” so I felt an admiration.




But this food, this is superfood, it is better than many others and for me the carob is the future. As a cultivation as a food and also it is very important as it has pharmaceutical uses, it's fantastic. It has many things. And now we started concentrating in the carob tree in order to help it, support it and make it known in the consciousness of the people, back, it's the coming back of the carob. To understand that this is so important. So, I've done many things. Congresses, meetings... I asked the cultivators to come here, to carob's mill. We made a new institution, society, association that is called The carob of Crete and consists of researchers, academics, cultivators and people from the culture. We have started with the university because I'm pushing the things too much and now, we've started to research, a very serious research, on different types of carob trees in Crete with the universities, because I have found the best researchers. Not only from the university of Crete, but also from Athens, university of Athens, Demokritos research institution and also other different institutions and universities in Greece. During the April of 2019 we had the first congress, Mediterranean congress in the carob mill and it was people from Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Egypt came here, and Italy. We started a network for the coming back in the carob tree in Mediterranean Europe, because it's a Mediterranean tree. And now we are preparing the new one, the new congress...


 



Sometimes I feel like I have a dialog with the carob, but I feel that it has so many secrets, that I have to discover. This is the most important thing to me. But I think it hides some secrets that I have to find what they are, so we have a very erotic relationship. I feel that.

Yes, I feel that. But not now, since many years ago. I'm afraid that if I talk more, I'm going to…



The carob cultivation is by nature ecological, because it doesn't need what the olive tree needs. It's everywhere, they can grow by themselves, without anything. Of course, if you help them, they would be... You can help them by cutting the branches, to see if they have any disease and sometimes watering them, because they don't need too much. It's an alternative cultivation during the climate change. This is the most important thing, because they are self-sufficient, everywhere, even in the very high temperature. They can grow on 800 meters on the highest.

The planting of olivetres is still for many the solution for agriculture, even price for oil /L is low as ca 3 EUR for L and everybody complains since the threat of deseses growth and sprajing with cwemicals is a "must" . Ther is also a latent fear that some deses can be a catastropy for monoculture of 33 mio trees on the island  

Olive trees, Carob trees..I love both of them, but carob is the symbol of survival, against everything, all the extreme conditions. And this is for me more important. And you can't survive eating olives, you can survive eating carobs. In order to survive with olives,  we have to make olive oil, we have to have a process, but the other one gives you directly what you need, that's why it saved a population. But yeah, this is again fire, preventing the fire. Many places would get burned..., it helps the soil to be stronger. I don't know it's magic. It's something the nature created, it gives us that way and I'm so enthusiastic about it. I'm feeling that I have a duty to do whatever I can for this. I feel like that, because it's a tree that nobody looks at it, focuses on and I have to show everybody that it's so important. The most important tree.

It is a symbol of survival.

Kostas Karatzis farm is just over the heal of jung olive growth -/img above/ Carob does not need any sprajing...drowt is not a problem since thay can root very deep even 15 meters.. and the fruet is hi protein , mineral and vitamin.. food -superfood and using it for health benefits goes back 4,000 years to ancient Greece.



As a culture, the Greeks, we have two different aspects, wings. One is Apollo and the other is Dionysus. So, this two have educated us, we have been trained to be both of them.

ps : If I had money, I would have done much more.  I'm thinking to make the first pilot film and then to go to Arte for example (TV channel) or Greek television to tell them this is the first and if you like it finance the others. Let's do it together. I have all the scenario, everything.

The Team of this story  : Korina Miliaraki, Ida Glušič, Ivana Petan, BB 

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Producedin by MEDLand project/BB : photo, reserch, intervievs by BB, conections organized by Korina Miliaraki, WGO filming photos by Aida Glušič, production assistant Ivana Petan

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Posted by bojanb
8 months ago

Be Enlightened -visit Lebanon

Our visit to "Lebanon – Be Enlightened" took place in June 2022, when Ivana Petan and BB were invited by fans of Ivana’s ceramics to celebrate life with them. I was able to take time to follow the light in the name of the MEDLand project, and Ivana and I both fell in love with the heartful spirit that goes far beyond and over the limitations of continuous pressure to …for best view use (laptop) computer !

Vladimir & Rafi * Rafi & Vladimir, two friends, two colleagues, two blessed people by their own definition, determined to continue to live in Lebanon and co-create with 30 other people – one of the most advanced landscape architecture Bureaus based on experience and knowledge of integrating and amplifying the energies of place in harmony with being(nes)s that coexist there. 

VLADIMIR DJUROVIĆ / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

... differences make us a special team, and this is our strength in a way. We are so different, and when you combine us in a different way, the results can be incredible… I cannot articulate that, but it’s the beauty of this diversity and of the difference…of accepting and celebrating the difference. And really knowing that it enriches everything. It adds a lot. Nobody is perfect, everyone has their flaws. You know, I also I do a lot of unexpected projects – like this one tomorrow: taking coworkers to their parents' house to design and plant a garden there. It just came up. So I take them from work, "leave all your work, come", and then we go have lunch after. And then, as I told you, the beautiful parts are when we get a big important project and we travel in a group of 6-7 people, smaller team from our office, we go experience new place, new culture. We’ve been around the world, from China to Mexico, to Canada, everywhere, we grew up together, we shared life together.

Just to tell you. We are working with some of the most important clients, like Aga Khan Foundation, and we’re working with top architects in the world, top ten architects in the world. So these guys have lots of expectations and very very serious deadlines. Quality of the work has to be… Because you have to exceed their expectations. We don’t only want to meet them, we want to exceed them. And with all this looseness that you feel, we still deliver the best work. I mean, when it’s time to work, we do amazing work, but without forcing anything. I just tell you what is due, when it’s due (date), you agree. I also ask you, you tell me, yes, I can do it in this amount of time. And then, do it. For us, the secret is also you have to motivate them… Not manage them with fear, with force or with a schedule… Every Monday morning, we spend an hour and a half together, the entire team. We talk about every project, every deadline, anyone with any problem will voice it, we’ll see who needs help, we’ll help him, and then we attack.

you can’t live and not feel joy

... when everybody is laughing and happy, when they go back to work now, after lunch, they eat the work. Because it’s not slavery. You gotta live. When you live and you’re happy, you give the best you can, your best. Without anybody telling you to do anything. And life: you can’t live and not feel joy. For me. I keep talking about it in the office. We have to find joy in everything we do. Otherwise, we shouldn’t be doing it. You know, you have one life, and the time that passes doesn’t come back. You can’t go back and bring it back... It’s done! So let’s be happy…

VLADIMIR

 About the flow of life & work ... 

It comes by itself, the goals or aspirations that I have for myself on a personal level… I just look and then they fit perfectly for the company as well… One way of looking at things, the same interest, the same passion that revolves around nature, and always almost sailing, but not on the sea. Just open up and see where things are going , and it’s very interesting how many different winds you catch, and it takes you somewhere very interesting… So I’m very open... Audio transcript >>>

VLADIMIR

A "personal project" in Montenegro "started with the idea that I am the client, so I can do it 100% as I see fit...

...to bring together these special energies . That’s number one. And what is also definite for me is that I want people to come all year round to be there. With me, without me, I want it to be a lived experience. And what people...

Audio transcript >>>

RAFI karekachian

 

About Lebanon ...

Lebanon is the warmth of the people … a life where people don’t fear each other … I’m attracted to smile … We are free people, it’s in our nature … I want to unlearn everything and relearn it my own way … “Lebanon is a message” … a coexistence in a universal sense, not just between humans … our minds must change … Zionist ideology … the system has to change … new laws … go back to human scale … future architecture and its redefinition … bring need and necessity in the equation … vernacular architecture … by talking to each other, a new formula must emerge … It’s tricky, but we shouldn't be afraid of it … I want to challenge …  Audio transcript >>>

I have never found this kind of warmth anywhere else I traveled. so that’s what's most special about Lebanon for me.

R A F I

... and more about architecture 

… In the past, people didn’t sit in the shade of what they planted. We’re about to lose this concept, altogether.

All these buildings that are owned but nobody is there ...

... The issue of continuity ...

... Life… It’s not history, it’s evolution, and it’s change ...

... Architecture and architects …

... Survival 🙂

... Vernacular architecture ...

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R A F I

The role of Hezbollah

Civil War in Lebanon … Hezbollah … Hassan Nasrallah … you and I have the same right … Western media … people living together with equal rights … one-state country … with will and determination, any unfair situation will have to end.

The initial plan of the Americans was to give Lebanon to the Palestinians and solve the Palestinian issue: take Lebanon and forget about Israel and Palestine. So at some point, they came all the way to this village here (above Beirut), which is a Christian neighbourhood, with a Christian headquarters in another village half an hour from here. So it became very scary, they were basically able to invade the most critical areas of Lebanon in terms of Palestinians. At this point, the Christian leadership asked Syria to intervene. To stop the plan. So the Syrians came in and they stopped the plan, basically. So that was the first blow to the Israeli-American plan. And the Syrians began to push the Palestinians back to where they were, to their camps, and they recaptured all the territory that the Palestinians had taken under their control.

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Ivana and I (BB) first met Rafi in person in the middle of the night, when he picked us up at the airport and took us to his nice big family fleet in Beirut. He said we could stay for a week, but we stayed until the last day! He had taken a week of just to show us around Lebanon. His favorite place is the Jabal Moussa forest reserve with very old cedar growth and canyons in the Mount Lebanon area.

Here in the mountains, I could finally admit that the light is special, intensive in a very specific way. By here, I mean in Lebanon, wherever we went ... I have a theory why, and it is also for this reason that I want to come back, trace more and explain that bit of the story as well.

ERICA ACCARI –

FARMS NOT ARMS HAS LAUNCHED THEIR FIRST FARM, TURBA

Turba, a women-led regenerative farm in Zahle, Beqaa in line with the Farms Not Arms design model.

Turba, the Arabic word for soil, encompasses our values and our focus of placing soil health front and center to heal our land, our communities, and our planet. We are employing regenerative principles 

to grow and cultivate healthy and nourishing food much more efficiently while creating a scalable farm model for food security.


BUZURUNA JUZURUNA:

Our Seeds are our Roots

Story of a Land, Protection of a Heritage – Buzuruna Juzuruna: قصة أرض وحماية التراث

Walid is a Syrian farmer, a refugee in Lebanon since 2011. In 2014, he met Zoé and Ferdinand, two Frenchmen, on a trip to the land of the cedars. This encounter gave birth to Buzuruna Juzuruna ("Our seeds are our roots"), a farm-school located in Saadnayel, Beqaa, supported by CCFD-Terre Solidaire.

INSTAGRAM

CATALOGUE 2022

 R A F T

What is difficult for me is that sometimes I feel alone. It’s hard, you know, because I don’t see a lot of people around me – I'm not saying there aren’t people – around me, among friends, colleagues. I’m somehow, maybe, marginal. But that's OK… There are a lot of people like that, but I’m not surrounded by them. But especially the young generation, when we talk about these things in general, not specifically in our work, in general about architecture, they are very open to this and very receptive. Much more than the older generation. Because they live the problem that the previous generation created. So even the religious differences, the new generation is fed up with these divisions. They don’t want to hear about it anymore, Christians, Muslims, Jews. But the previous generation fought for it, one fought as a Christian, the other one as a Muslim… But the new generation is more open. The minds of the others are blocked. The same goes for these issues. They very easily accept it and then work around it. Yeah, but you have to do it in a… I don’t like to nag, that is dangerous, if I keep nagging “this is bad, this is bad…” No, this is what we have, and we have to change it. You change by being self-critical, seeing what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and trying to change that. It’s as simple as that. And believe that you can change. Which I do, definitely. So that’s the key, I guess. Not to nag, not to be destructive. Not to just complain without being constructive. Try to give solutions. And one of my solutions was to take a new look at the architectures of today in terms of legislation. Which means a new way of thinking, a new way of approaching.

My wish is to “not leave a trace”… There is an Armenian poet who has a phrase I like a lot: “Like a flower I take out of the earth, I smiled at life, I walked away and left”. This is what I mean by “not leaving a trace”. Now, smiling at life is the trace, the kind of trace I want to be, yes, only that kind. Just smiling at life and then walking away and leaving. And I read that on one of my birthdays, quite by coincidence 🙂 There is a joke about coincidence: two philosophers are discussing (this is also in Armenia) whether there is chance in life or there isn’t. So the guy that believes there is chance is says to the other, “Let’s say you’re walking on the street and the flower pot falls on you from the balcony. What do you call that?” The other one says, “This is an accident." He’s avoiding the word "chance". The first on says, “OK, the next day you’re walking down that same street and then from that same balcony another flower pot falls on you. What would this be?” The other one says, "This is coincidence...” 🙂 The first one says: “Ok, suppose the third day you’re walking again and then the flower…” And the second one says, “This has become a habit." 🙂 They (the Armenians) have very funny jokes, especially in the Soviet times when you couldn’t say much and everything was hidden.

The bigger the problems, the closer the solutions. Everything we are doing beyond our needs is a poison. - R A F I

and PIerre

"Young people should stay in Lebanon, but..." Besides offering his chocolates, Pierre – LE NOIR Atelier Du Chocolat – also

shared his opinion about young people in Lebanon.

We ordered coffee and got chocolate with it :-))

AND editor's note: 

The title of this exclusive Mediterranean story, "Be Enlighted – Visit Lebanon", can be explained in three ways:

– Lebanon (similar to Palestine) is the best place to see how life can be simultaneously experienced and lived as parallel realities. One is based on connections and sympathies, being connected to the land and cultivating heartful relationships with each other. Such wisdom gives us the strength to live... a life. The other reality is the fact of living in a country and area (Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan) that has been the target of strong manipulative egoistic interests since WWII, which makes life very hard even today! 32 years have now passed since the civil war (which lasted nearly 15 years). The majority of the population no longer knows how it was "before", and 60% of the population live abroad as messengers of the wisdom of coexistence, as they remain well connected to Lebanon. Today, we are in a critical situation globally that forces us to be aware of our own parallel realities that give us opportunity to connect and coexist where peace and freedom are present.

– Be enlightened... Here the light is literally different, very bright. This could be related to the specific conditions in this part of the Mediterranean. 

– Be enlightened... is something almost normal here. The people are very friendly, attentive, self-aware and well connected with the land, which is still very strong and primal, despite being overpopulated. Here meet the sea and minerals of the land, mountains. 

Rafi's statement – The bigger the problems, the closer the solutions – works here, where conditions are good and people are connected to them. I know that living in parallel worlds also exists in other parts, gaps and pockets of the world, and practicing our own parallel worlds as individuals and communities should also contribute to the "pot of wisdom". In this sense, Lebanon is a great place to stay and get inspired.

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Released by MEDLand project / film, photography, editing: BB   TRANSCRIPTIONS : Ivana Petan  proofreading: Tadej Turnšek,       godfather of the story: Ivana Petan

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Natural space is fundamentally a free space..

Ivana Petan(the author of the story),

actively participated in the project many times and in many ways, from the very beginning and even before, helping to restore the boat, Nalu, that we are now using. She is a member of the core team. She expresses her creativity mainly in the form of ceramic art works, as well as with geomancy stone installations group projects.

As an artist, she participated in three MedLand-related exhibitions (1,2,3). As an expert in geomancy, she did her part in the story: a discourse with the island of Ikaria. On our 2021 trip, she did the entire observation of the places we visited. Her observations have left a strong mark, since so much is changing in the way we experience and bring into awareness our relations, especially with the land. The title of the project (MedLand) is about the land – the potential of the land, small or big, or the entire Mediterranean that changes through periods, along with our perceptions and relations with all other conscious life. Ivana's interactions go beyond, like looking behind the curtain :-)) 

Ivana Petan & BBimages

The present writing is a trace of this years' MedLand project. Visits to the agro-agriculture project Southern Lights in the Peloponnese, Zlatka, a Slovenian who has lived in the western part of Crete for more than 30 years and grows olive trees, and meeting a Cretan initiative for the revival of the importance of the carob tree were pre-planned. All other stops on the way connected the path into a semantic whole. The focus of this writing is not primarily on people, but rather on the natural space, seen and experienced through the eyes of geomancy. Natural space is fundamentally a free space; without names, borders, properties, coats of arms and flags, with its roots in the connection of different beings, forms, memories, wisdom, impulses, which with their unique breath co-create the harmony of life, approaching and distancing, with change as the only constant. In addition to visible physical materiality, nature also has its invisible energetic face: conscious beings who become visible through heart communication and intuition.




All writing is a personal experience of spaces I've visited: their qualities, the possibility of their connection and cooperation with each other and with humans, human contribution, and a presence of the impulse of the birth of some different world and existence in respect, co-creation and well-being of everything visible and invisible as a living whole.

The Ionian Islands. I experienced them as an energy door, a transition to the eastern part of the Mediterranean, which stimulates and significantly moves its whole. The Ionian Islands offer tempting gifts of the beauty of nature and people, of a friendly and decent life, as a lure to extend the journey to the

Aegean part of the Mediterranean,in which the rising sea depths potentiate everything else: the appearance of space, a sense of the elements, approach to life, its rules and myths that establish it, the determination and courage - not only for survival, but also for life. Due to its conditions and characteristics,living in the Aegean space of the Mediterranean requires deep perfection and awakens stronger emotions, decisions and binding promises.

However, before entering the Aegean Sea, rises another passage: the Peloponnese peninsula. A vast space of different landscapes and qualities. Although I have always respected it very much, it was only now that I slowly began to become aware of not only its width and height but also its depth. It proved to me to be the centre of the life energy of the entire Mediterranean. The Peloponnese being led me into its underworld that glows golden. Its core carries a balancing organ that appeared to me as a globe-shaped organ, incessantly dancing left-right, up-down, actively bringing and maintaining vital energy needed for power harmonization of the space, perpetually in motion. However, I sensed the blockage in the upward passage by a metal plate, and as a result, there is no cosmic impulse to cooperate with Gaia. Therefore, a balance organ is stopped in its motion, standing frozen and forgotten, speaking of forgetfulness of the crucial importance of natural space for human life, of their interdependence. Simultaneously, it awakens thinking about ways of active human change and establishing a new balance on the wings of cooperation and connection with nature, which enables respectful life of all human and nonhuman beings. I disconnected the plate and sent it into transformation into Gaia and performed a Tear of Grace for the Peloponnese. Like acid rain, a tear began to melt the metal plate. In its place, an empty white space opened up as the quality of a white goddess; of the new wholes ready to enter the red creative goddess phase.

Firs finger of Peloponnese

The westernmost Greek island is Othonoi. I see it in the shape of a small dragon with its head facing southeast. It appeared to my senses as an island of joy and permission to live. I experienced it as a space of powerful impulse for the new: when old ways of life are left behind, the opportunity for new ways of understanding, communicating, acting opens up. Othonoi is sending us a message that it is possible to come into contact with the possibilities of new possibilities of dwelling and consequently to see and realize the (not-yet-embodied) potentials.

As a symbol of the quality of the island, a being with arms outstretched towards the sky (as an inverted symbol of peace or a tree) appeared in my vision.

The symbol of the quality for the whole of islands Paxos and Anti Paxos, which were next islands along our way, appeared to me in the form of a rhombus. With its sides, the rhombus opens a space of individual inner rest, of gathering within, introverted activity inside, which leads to the cleansing of outdated patterns, the clarification of desires and the formation of the intention-direction of life. As an earthquake of the inner world that gives birth to a new view, a new vision of the outer world and own individual role in it, preparing for a new path, a new cycle, and pointing to the natural rhythm of endless spiritual maturation.

The shape of the islands remain incomprehensible to me for now.

Zakynthos island awakened a range of emotions in me: from the confinement, impermeability and compression in a bag of consumerism and tourism, disconnection from the depths of the earth and the height of the sky, breathing hard due to the prevailing male principle and abuse of natural space, to the sincere contact with joyful nature in the interior of the island. In the centre of the valley in the island's middle, I sensed a spiral rising into the sky, energetically charged by four surrounding places on four sides of the island. It is strongly rising high in the sky but lacks grounding. The form of the island appeared to me as a being walking forward and looking back. And the quality of the island I recognized as knowledge to incorporate the ancestral wisdom into the present and keep it for descendants.

In the vast olive grove of a friend Dimitris Therianos(update21:film by Ida Glušič), I felt the joy and love of its cultivation. Each olive tree is connected invisibly with all others as a part of the whole, the last showing to me as the respiration system of one organism. Connecting with them, I felt the olive tree as a female tree and saw its unique feature: the olives dance! The old olive tree we last visited showed itself imbued with many times and periods. It radiated a particular mysticism, arousing awe. I experienced it as an archetype of ancestors, as a silent sage that regulates the life of an olive grove.

As a symbol of the quality of Zakynthos, a circle inside a rhombus appeared to me.

The Peloponnese peninsula has shown to me in the shape of a being with a tail that faces west, bringing in an energetic influence from the East. I felt it played the role of the centre of (primordial) life force (hara) in the Mediterranean, sending it into the wholeness through the “tail, legs and arms”. When I visualized myself in the middle of the Peloponnese, I felt strong forces from all sides, as if I were standing on a big draft, at the centre of an imbalance. It took a lot of effort to manage standing up straight. When I asked the Peloponnese about its readiness for the “new”, it was confused, perhaps even frightened, as it could not relate to the meaning of my question. Then Demeter appeared. She ritually outlined a circle around herself on the ground with the stick and hit hard in its middle. A strong spring rose from it and began to rain on the Peloponnese. Is this rain a message about the growth potential of something new?


Pylos lies on the outside of the left foot of the Peloponnese (1st toe of the Peloponnese). I experienced it in his comfortable, peaceful life, backed by prosperity present on all levels: an abundance of food, a year-round friendly climate, the absence of industry. In addition, the security of living is based on following the tradition and its successes, meaning that the question of the possibility of something new and different is unknown and never asked.

As a symbol of the quality of Pylos, the letter V appeared to me - the door of Gaia gifts into space.

In the village of Koroni, the feeling and view of the place and the port speaks to me of chaos, disorder, inaccessibility, loss of identity. I feel her ignorance of current changes in space and potentially new ways of living even more strongly than in Pylos.

As a symbol of the quality of the village, a spiral from earth to sky appeared to me.

I feel the primary energy potential of the left foot of the Peloponnese (1st toe of the Peloponnese) in the opening from the earth to the sky. Here, Gaia messages and qualities are brought into the light. However, this flow is being obstructed by poor grounding. Space is not present in the actual moment but stays in its closed world, with the heavy energies of struggle, fear and lack of freedom from the past. The space sleeps.

 

I feel the cape of the tail of the Peloponnese (2nd toe of the Peloponnese) as an energy pillar that expands horizontally into the environment and thus connects, collects and balances the qualities of two neighbouring capes of the Peloponnese (left and right feet of the Peloponnese). The presence of the element of air is strong, and here, for the first time since my arrival in Greece, I feel the imposing, breathtaking power of the rocks - compared to the left leg of the Peloponnese, I feel here in its tail much more primal strength.

This space is a space of a dragon of air. Along with this quality which is an aspect of the primordial strengths of Gaia, this space also breathes with the cosmos, with spiritual guidance and the influx of new possibilities of incarnations.

In the village of Porto Kagyo (on the right side of the tail of the Peloponnese - 2nd finger of the Peloponnese, we find the chapel of St. Nicholas. I read his gesture of the crossed upward index and middle fingers, and under the latter connected to the thumb and fourth finger, depicted on all the icons, as the wisdom of the embodiment of one's spiritual potential. Balancing one's fire and water quality brings the realization of spiritual potential (connection of thumb and earth quality).

As a symbol of Porto Kagyo quality, I saw a thread that descends from heaven to earth, here fertilizes with the message of incarnation, and returns to the cosmos in an arc, gifting the cosmos with new information (a new record in Akasha).

The next stop on the Peloponnese was Gytheio (deeper in the bay between Peloponnese's tail and the right foot - between its 2nd and 3rd toes, on the right side). As I connected with the city, a white goddess spinning in a circle appeared to me in the hill above it. It is not in full potential, but it does not sleep completely (like most of the Peloponnese we sailed by then).

As a symbol of Gytheio quality, I saw a spiral extending horizontally into space.

Near Gytheio is the village of Skala. In its nearness, we visited the Southern Lights, an agro-farming project. I felt their collaboration with plants as an attitude of respect for the earth. I felt the plants in their freedom, joy, contentment. They form a golden ray net that opens into space and sends out new information. The place is grounded, with Gaia and Pan participating.

I felt the impulse from the cosmos in the space of the Southern Lights project is weaker. It might be due to poor free-flowing energy, perhaps because the community rules restrict the freedom of life choices of the participants. I strongly feel the potential for developing new ways of working with plants - plants with plants and people with plants. However, its realization requires the development of individual responsible freedom that supports, preserves and enriches the well-being of the whole - in the relationship between the community people. Only as free and horizontally distributed does the energy for embodying the new have free flow at all levels.

At the entrance to the Southern Lights project grows an old eucalyptus tree. As a key, I received a purse with gold coins there, representing the potential of the project to enrich the world with knowledge about the coexistence of man and nature, to bring new and upgrade old knowledge into a different, for this time relevant whole. The realization of this depends on the freedom of creativity, on one side for nature, on the other side for community members who, by making their own decisions, cocreate with their unique contribution.

The Southern Lights project embodies the primary potential of the Peloponnese region: agro-agriculture as an intuitive exploration into the ways of encouraging forest creation by planting and combining plants grows out of respect for nature and connection with spiritual guidance embodied in new ideas of connecting and collaborating with nature. Thus, it is possible to create a new whole (white goddess) for further co-creation.

Also, we visited the land of the emerging farm of Panos and Kali, active members of the Southern Lights project. At the site of the emerging plantation, I saw a tree of life growing, and at the site of a future living-house, I felt a strong presence of the element of water.

I felt the connection of both lands with the energy threads.

Kayres village lies in the interior of the Peloponnese, at the foot of Mount Parnon at an altitude of 950m. From the Karyes name was born the name Kayratide (translation: young girls from Karyes), which originally meant local priestess dancers who every year danced a local ritual dance in honour of Artemide Karyatide. Later, this name came into use for all female sculpture supporting pillars (the most notable is Erectus on the Acropolis).

I felt Kayres as a yin area with feminine quality. We visited 2500-year-old plane trees, strong earthly giants and at the same time ethereal ones, as if invisibly touching the sky. In addition to the wisdom they carry, Ent also conveyed me their grief over neglect and forgetfulness from the people. The reason for this cessation of the coexistence of man and nature, the plane trees whispered to me, is the predominance of reason and its non-recognition of nature as a conscious being.

In front of the plane trees is the spring where the temple of Artemis once stood. I felt space as a strong golden pillar of energy connecting earth and sky.


Our way back to Gytheio high Taygetos mountains followed us all the way, with the highest peak Prophet Elijah (2405m). When I connected with him, I felt him kissing the sky.

Energetically, I experienced the right foot of the Peloponnese (3rd toe of the Peloponnese) as connected to the cosmos and the element of air. On its cape, there is the village of Profitis Illias. I experienced it as a peaceful and pure village, in harmony and silence. This silence was too quiet, communicating not of living in peace, but of sleep and isolation, of living in its rhythm and time, far removed from world reality. Here, again, I met a space that sleeps and knows nothing about the “new”.

Behind the village, there is a dragon-shaped mountain, rising boldly to the sky with its buttocks in the sea.

As a symbol of the quality of Profitis Illias, I saw a spiral descending from heaven to earth.

During our sailing to Crete, I first connected with the Peloponnese: the being of the Peloponnese thanked us and greeted us with an invitation to return. Demeter of the Peloponnese blessed us and sent us golden wheat. I then connected with Crete and felt the presence of Minoan culture and the culture of the (Neolithic) goddess.

We moored in Kissamos (former Castelli), a town in the westernmost bay of Crete. The request for a key dropped a golden anchor in my hands. When I connected with the island, it opened to me in quality that felt like some other time and origin and at the same time being in the present moment. Like a particular knowledge of the connection between the past and the present, where growth potential is coming from the old wisdom, upgraded for the present time. I felt Crete as an individual holon, grounded and unconditional. As a space of connecting hara chakra with heart chakra: a place where courageous insights, recognitions, getting to know oneself and decisions how to place oneself always include ancestors and tradition. I felt a space behind me - a connection to the causal worlds.



Connecting with the Crete being, a vague image of two feminine figures first appeared to be - a warrior and a Neolithic goddess -, as if the being was too weak to show herself clearly in her essence.

As a symbol of Crete, I saw golden threads in the shape of a pyramid-facing-up and a pyramid-facing-down. The threads ran only vertically. I got the impulse they also needed to run horizontally to connect Crete with the rest of Greece. By combing the threads horizontally and breathing back into causal spaces, bees appeared and began to fly around Crete. I asked Demeter of the Peloponnese to send the grain. Golden grain and bees met and connected on the way between the Peloponnese and Crete. Simultaneously, a Peloponnesian balance-organ woke up, moving around its axis and thus balancing the space of the Mediterranean. As if the connection of grain and bees - the Peloponnese and Crete - gave the balance-organ a power for restarting its life cycle. In this way, Crete presented to me like a womb of the Mediterranean.

After the exercises, the symbol of Crete also changed: from the point of meeting the golden threads of the lower and upper pyramid, a horizontal spiral of golden energy began to twist into space. There was also a change in the vision of the being of Crete: clearly, I saw a woman in a long golden dress with bull horns on her head, turning clockwise and sowing seeds all around her from the highest Cretan peak Psiloritis (2456m, Oros Idi mountain area).

Here in Crete, I felt an openness to the new for the first time in Greece.

Dear friend Zlatka, who hosted us for a few days, opened some exceptional natural spaces for us.           story about Zlatka 

Mouri is a village closest to a natural place called Island (Nisi) - its name comes from the fact that it is impossible to get anywhere from it, as there is a mountain on one side and a canyon on the other. I felt Island as a space unrelated to the notion of time we know; he lives in timelessness/omnipresence.

At the entrance to the place, there are ruins of a church, full of frescoes inside. From one of its remaining walls now grows an old carob tree. I felt the place as a place of Sofia/Christ presence, more precisely, as a place of meeting Sofia/Christ in oneself - with the potential of love, forgiveness and compassion for oneself. 

Near the village of Syrikari (Sirikari) is a forest of old chestnut trees. The energetic key for entering the place was a burgundy bag with stone arrows. I experienced the space as a place of healing, health and inner peace. The chestnut tree presented herself to me as a female and cosmic tree that brings cosmic energy into space in the form of silver rain.

From Zlatka place, we continued towards the east of Crete, towards the secrets of the carob.

In the central part of Crete, we visited places and people associated with reviving the importance of the carob tree. First, we met a 1000-years-old carob tree in the Rethymno region. As I stood in her circle, she immediately accepted me into a circle of friends, thus showing her as a tree that makes friends quickly and easily. I also felt carob as a woman’s tree. When I connected with her, I saw that she feeds on the direct sun energy she stores in the fruit: the carob is a golden tree. (WGO story :Coming Back to the Carob Trees)

Every new experience of Crete was slowly disclosing it to me as a place connected to roots and ancestors and at the same time connected to the cosmos. Translated to the human body, this speaks of the connection between hara (life force) and the heart (spiritual perception). This connection awakens the potential of passionate creation and living one’s truth, not forgetting the wisdom and knowledge of the past.

At one point, connecting with a being of Crete ignited a spark in my heart. At the same time, however, I felt pressure from above that prevented the spark from glowing into the embodiment. I intuitively connected it with the (rational) existential fear, which many people solve today by ceasing traditional (self-sufficient) ways of care, focusing on owning material things, consumerism and finding a comfortable life. This possession-based life approach has revealed to me as restricting the free life flow, and as a way that closes the heart to free intuitive experiences.

Above village Melidoxori (Melidochori) in a Heraklion region lives Kostas, a master grafter of carob trees. The space of his farm and the surrounding landscape is like a vessel in which the sun is bathing. Here, heaven and earth kiss and procreate. It is a powerful yin space of abundance and prosperity that gives, gives, gives. This landscape is the womb in a different sense than the place of Komolithi in western Crete: it is the granary of Crete, where Gaia openly gives herself to all beings and thus ensures their lives.

Here again, I experienced the carob as a tree with sun fruits, as food fertilizing life with the life energy of the sun, awakening the life force. Carob is like a mother: independent, self-sufficient, with the knowledge and strength to survive without additional watering, caring for others and making immediate friendships. Carob thrives in different soil types, protects the soil from erosion, can survive on winter amount of rain and protects the space from fire.

In addition to carob trees, Kostas’ farm also includes old black oak trees that grow around the estate. They complement each other energetically: carob as yin and black oak as yang. I saw the black oaks sending energy threads to the carob trees, thus connecting and grounding them into the holon of the space.

On Kostas’ holon, there is also a big rock with dragon quality. Eagles, sunbirds, nest there. This quality of eagle also lives in Kostas. Likewise, the sun of Gaia is vibrating in the joyful, passionate, sincere, unobstructed way of Kosts’ communication, speech, attitude and response to the trees and garden, and not to forget, even in his deep need for abundant hospitality and gifts to visitors. He is embodying this unconditional giving quality that is born in this landscape.

We crossed part of eastern Crete, the Lasithi region and part of central Crete, the Heraklion region, went past Agios Nikolaos, then along the local road from Elounda to Naples and finally towards the village of Tris Ekklisies (Three Churches) in the southern part of Crete. Landscapes opened up to me in the power of the elemental world and Sidhe.

Not far from the village Tris Ekklisies we visited an old carob forest, unique in the Mediterranean. In this dry and rocky landscape, I felt that the carob loves solitude, does not long for visitors. Even without the latter, it is present, complete and self-sufficient. Here I strongly felt Sidhe living next to people in their invisible reality of a parallel world. Hidden, they are waiting for the awakening of people, for their realization of nature as a conscious being ready to participate in co-creation.

On the way back from Crete to the Peloponnese, we stayed overnight on the island between them, Kythira. I felt it as an island of hospitality, tolerance, peace and lightness between the two powerful spaces of the Peloponnese and Crete. A being of the island appeared to me like a woman spinning with open arms, happy, content, smiling, reconciled to herself and all that is; integrating and caring for every being that comes along.

As a symbol of the quality of Kythira, sea waves appeared to me.

The main lesson of this travel through Greece I may condense in the sentence: "Instead, as an animal, let give ourselves a possibility to live as a plant." It comes from olive, chestnut and carob. I felt plants connect into one organism. They cooperate and support each other without fear of being left without free space and opportunities for life. They do not build cohesion on equality and through supporting the same paths, forms, characteristics, but on complementing, enriching and changing the whole by supporting differences. Fluidity and the freedom of growing each being/seed into its unique plant are encouraged. In this way is each time created a new unique whole. The interconnectedness and cooperation in nature become visible to the human heart because the heart connection recognizes the plant not as a dead thing for human management, but as a conscious being, open for cooperation and co-creation. The world of plants is teaching me that space truly lives in its potential only if its beings are interconnected and at the same time independent, sincerely supporting the well-being of the whole. For only as a part, they exist and are themselves able to grow.

The coexistence of natural space with people and people with people, seen and felt on this Greek trip, was often opposite of the latter. I felt the absence of integration replaced by fencing and isolating identities without being aware of the need for connection and cooperation. Above all, bare rational conception and action have once again proved to be the general activator of human oblivion of the natural (organic) way of coexistence lived by the plant world. View on monocultural cultivation of olives, planted geometrically in flat rows in an otherwise varied Cretan landscape, felt strongly unnatural. Trees of almond, carob, citrus fruit and other variety that once had their place among olive ones, have long been cut down. An experience of seeing monoculture olive groves, in reality, showed me the consequences of human recourse to primary rationality. The accumulation of individual property and the restriction of the free flow of energies at all levels causes instead of trust only reign of fear, instead of a varied and unmanageable horizon just a pure and monotonous vertical visibility.

Visited Greek islands mostly live and function as closed worlds. At the beginning of our journey, the inner seeing of the sea space of the Mediterranean, where we intended to sail, was revealed to me as connected with golden threads, which - as I can conclude now - remain hidden and unlived. Isolated - both spaces and people - thus lose the possibility of connecting into mutually supporting waves of a unique rhythm of exchanging experiences and creating something synergistically larger. And, does not the current state of the world encourage us to make such changes? 

This non-recognition of the whole, which is created by connecting different approaches, ideas and professions, I experience as an obstacle for opening new individual paths of understanding and working into the highest good of the whole, which means the highest best of each of its parts in its uniqueness.

The path I see is a balance of heart and mind in their authentic qualities and roles, offering humans a friendship and cooperation with nature, with Mother Gaia. I experience Gaia as already transforming and inviting people to recognize her by deviating from the old understanding of the world. Should we join her with confidence on the way to the new, despite not knowing what and how it will be? Human ignorance has no power to stop Gaia's changes, but it prevents them from seeing them and establishing an inner relationship with them.

And how did everything I experienced affect me? Due to the felt drowsiness, disbalance and absence of the space itself, I, a lover of Greece, was impressed by the sadness and awareness of the powerful changes that should take place. Powerful breakthroughs of the living presence of the space itself were too rare this time. As if human ignorance of the current state and unwillingness to make internal decisions about individual path have left a deep fog on the natural space and hidden from us its rebirth, its breathtaking beauty and strength. However, I also understand this “absence” of natural space feeling within me as an invitation and an incentive for change. These feelings of inconsistency did not silence my desire to explore even more deeply the spaces touched this time in their hiddenness. They also triggered my innerness for dissection and insight of everything that still needs to go into the process of transformation, forgiveness, and change, learning to be a student of the plant world.

Ivana -MED Land related -links :

sailing Nalu from Bari to Piran -Slovenia (Ivana-Sabine-Bojan)

Venetians in Venice about Venice/Ivana was asistant/

restoratin of the boat Nalu 

Linking with Greece “East bank” via Ferry

Dance with Mary – exhibition/instalation 

Workshop with Marko Pogačnik on the island of Hvar

The first and The last -boat restouration in Greece

Water Dragon of Venice – Exhibition in Zadar

Exhibition “Barke” (Boats) by Ivana Petan-ceramics and BojanB-prints

Workshop with Marko Pogačnik on the archipelago of Vis – September 2019

The first three days of 2020

“The Last Days” & the first steps for a long-term art group project on the island of Ikaria

Setting UP Art residency-tiny house on the island of Ikaria -Aegean sea

Now – MEDland Project (May 2021)

The trip – MEDland Project (June 2021)

Over the open sea – MEDland Project (June 2021)

Meeting Yiannis again – MEDland Project (June 2021)

Between Ionian islands – “A good stop at the Therianos family” ( June 2021)

Dimitris Therianos an expert for polyphenols, update 2021

Coming and Going – MEDland Project (June 2021)

Bringing forest back to Earth -The Southern Lights project

Coming back to the carob trees

A discourse with Ikaria island



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Released by MED Land project, June 2021 /story by Ivana Petan , photo/editing: BB;  

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Posted by bojanb
a couple of years ago

ABOVE expectations..


2021 MED Land destinations were Peloponnese and Crete. Ivana Petan, Ida Glušič, Matej Michalec and BB were the team.

MEDLand 2021 Ivana, Maček, bb first days to the first Greek island

Maćek produced 5 WGO films about the trip and Storytelling encounters on the Peloponnese, all on MED Land >WGO 

BB did two main stories, and one together with Ida (yet to be published).

Ivana did report of her geomantic encounters with the beings of the places we stopped (yet to be published).

Ida was making WGO films, and she made the first one, a film with Dimitris Therianos, even before we meet, while waiting for us to pick her up! AND a special film for the main story about Zlatka from Crete (yet to be published).

The last MED Land trip in 2021, from Pylos (Peloponnese) to Stari Grad (Hvar island in the Adriatic) was above expectations.

We decided to postpone “the sailing back from Crete“ to our home port to the end of July, when all planed stories were done, but we still had a 1000 km long sailing trip to reach our home port on the island of Hvar in the Adriatic. We wanted to have additional time for this long trip and focus on yet another theme.

The theme I was longing for on our long trip back to our home port in the Adriatic was to observe, experience and communicate with elements, like waves, streams, winds ...

I could not get the promised crew till the 1st of October and left 16 days later than planned. I met our new crew member Iva here for the first time, when I picked her up with the car on the way to Split. From there, we continued by ferries to Ancona and Patras, and from there on by buses and taxis to the boat. Iva has never before on a sailing boat before, but she is a person strongly connected to nature, especially to Iceland, where she lives now.

There was over 80 NM from Peloponnese to Zakynthos island (main port Zante)  – and since I had to fix some things on the boat, we started late and it was already dark when we arrived at the main port of Zakynthos island.

VIDEO - Iva has never been on a sailing boat before! But in a few hours, she already confidently took over the rudder :-))

 


Jana Prepeluh, an artist from Slovenija, was the second team member, with her last sailing experience on Nalu, when we did our first research trip to Greece for the MED Land project in September 2016! Jana was waiting for us on Zakynthos and spent some time with the Therianos familly.

It was a full moon day when the weather started to turn unstable, windy, rainy, stormy, forecast for several days to come! Uh-oh, what to do? I missed the super stable sunny and warm weather. I knew very well that if the weather changes around full moon, it means it will stay unstable ... And indeed it was.

After two, three hours of sleep in the port of Zante, a strong noise of the boat hitting the pier woke me up! It was a serious situation because of the very strong wind and big waves in the port. Luckily, I found some big plastic drums on the road and tied them between the boat and the pier. Next thing was to find a better place. In two hours, I found a better place, but in the meantime, the wind picked up much more! It was impossible for Iva and me to push Nalu away from the pier. At that very moment, early in the morning, young strong men appeared on the pier and helped us to do the maneuver! The wind became even stronger, and we had to stay in Zante for two more days and hope for a one-day gap with less wind, just enough to reach Ithaca. Jana joined us in Zante, but because the boat was moving so much, she got sea sick already in the port … Not many would be willing to go out sea sick, but Jana, as strong as she is, did it. And all the way for the next four days, she did everything to be positive and overcome sea-sickness . 

..two more days in Zante..in a safest part of the port..

Marketplace in Zante

Late in the night, in strong rain and wind, we reached Vathy, the main port of Ithaca. The port was empty, but a man approached us, greeting us: ”I remember you! Yes, here you can tie the boat, and electricity and water are free – a leftover of previous boat, take it, and welcome!“ On Ithaca, we had a one-day stop to meet with Leila again (MED Land story).

She always inspires me! What she did and how she lives now on her farm, full of experiments, will be in the upcoming update of her story.

The next port was Gaios on the island of Paxos, and the already normal procedure was to tie the boat in heavy rain and strong wind. The early morning ritual was to get some diesel, which happened in15 minutes ... ”Welcome, you are here again!”, with a big smile from the diesel truck that drives through the port to fill up boats. We had to take of as soon as possible, since we had another long trip to reach Othonoi island – the last Greek island before Otranto, the passage between Albania and Italy, and AGAIN with only one-day gap of less winds on the route to reach the destination.

North of Othonoi, we had to wait again, but it was a must-stop anyway to meet Yiannis Katehis (MED Land story) , who also  became a harbor master, apart from being the vice president of three islands. He is a hyperactive activist and a never-ending inspiration for me. My brother, I could say ... He spent with us one wonderful day, in his studio, with his mother serving us the best pasta and with long, great conversations that we had in a coffee shop. The update will tell more! 

Yiannis' success on Othonie is finally a proper ferry line every day ...

... AND fresh SPRING water for the whole island. More in the update >>>  

In the port, there was a single Italian sailor on a much bigger boat than Nalu, also waiting for the right time to cross Otranto towards Italy. I decided to take of early, very early in the morning, when the winds started to go down. And Jana was not ready to go with me this time. She stayed on Othoni for another couple of hours to join the Italian sailor, who decided to do a much shorter route to Italy, which was not convenient for us considering the forecast for the following days. This was the best solution!  After 22 hours on the sea with big waves and also rain during the last hours, Iva was still in a positive, relaxed mood. And finally. the port of Brindisi! I was sure it was going to be calm inside, but it was NOT.

We arrived to Brindisi in the night and tried to moor in two places - but still to much movement up and down. Morning came soon, and I walked to all marinas in the port to get a place.

Naval Balsamo was definitely the best bet: very kind family business, also boat-building and repairing site, all that you need was here for a fair flat price! 

Here, I discovered that the engine cooling system is leaking water! I took off the part that was leaking, and since they could not weld copper here in marina, they took me immediately by car to the car cooling system mechanic. In a good half an hour, I was back and the job was done! 

BEST pizza place. Strict COVID regulations in pizza restaurants brought us to this family shop with TOP pizza and all that we needed for food. After two visits, we were already "friends" and we got extras like pasta, vegies etc. as a gift.

As always, I talked to other people in the port who we also waiting for the wind to go down. And that is how I met Tomaž, who was on an even smaller boat  - a wooden sailing boat from Sweden - waiting to cross the Adriatic. “Good, we sail together than“ - and that is what we did, two Slovenes with two funky sailing boats, the only wooden boats in the port. We started the next evening, a 33-hour trip to reach the Korčula island. When we came out from the port, there were still big waves and NE wind - a difficult direction for our route, but we knew that sooner or later the wind will go down :-)) Still in the night, when I could already use autopilot since the sea calmed down, I found out that the autopilot was not working any more. ”Tomaž, Tomaž, Tomaž“, was my call on Channel 9, and I asked him to sail in front of us, so we could follow his lights. The trip over the open sea in a tandem was really much easier :-)) . **We crossed the deepest part of the Adriatic, and observing water, waves, light, clouds here was very inspiring for me. One of  the inspirations was that the see, as well as rivers, are (in many cases) the places where the primeval earth forces can be very dynamic, more dynamic than on solid land.

All in all, the trip was intensive, but also very inspiring . The key for this experience was that Iva, who NEVER EVER did a sailing trip before, was completely “in” all the time, happy, relaxed and reliable to do anything that was needed, including taking over the rudder under the sails for many hours. She was happy being on this trip, so I could be in tune with what was going on and relaxed, even when I was wet, cold and tired. In this way, the true wave that was taking us over was being at the right place at the right time and meet “good” heartful people who were really helpful and touched my heart deeply. The landing on Korčula was a welcome story for as again: the marina stuff did not charge us, and the police and custom registration process upon arrival to Croatia was very relaxed.

We did miss 16 essential days of good weather, but I would not change it after ALL! I had to be really open to observe, experience and communicate with elements such as waves, streams, winds, in conditions that where pulling me to survival mode! Exactly opposite to where I wanted to be ... And what happened was that I reached this blissful in-tune moments, to be first of all in experience mode and be inspired, like in the middle of the Adriatic, above the deepest part of this big bay, in a very deep way. If you feel blessed at the end, then EVERYTHING had meaning ... That is how the life should be ... Ready for next passage.

It took another night and day to reach the island of Šćedro - a small island along Hvar island. Nobody could expect that this small island under its "bigger brother" could be an entire world of its own! I keep coming back to understand more about these two close, and yet so different individuals-islands. “Yes, it is like this,” I heard a whisper, “because these two islands grew up long ago in different evolution times, when dragons were the most active.” Which one is older? “It does not matter, all is also now.”

Šćedro island

Šćedro island

And the last challenge on this trip awaited us on the way back, already in Split, where I have parked the car, a borrowed car :-)), and found out that a whole exhaustion system was stolen! And also the car battery was completely empty, because I left the lights on :-)) It was already the middle of the day, and even though I had battery cables to connect to cars from people that wanted to help, it didn't work. BUT, very quickly, situation started to go in a different direction. The nearby housekeeper of the Naval Museum is a mechanic who had special cables. He managed to start the engine and even take me to a very kind car exhaust mechanic at the outskirts of Split. Of course, there was no way to get the original exhaust system, so he made a new on in just 3 hours :-)) . Meanwhile, Iva was in the port waiting with my luggage, including the money that I needed. Mechanic was far from the port, and luckily a taxi stopped ... "We are the cheapest in town! Take a sweet from me to calm down ... “ were his first words, and quickly we found out that we have common friends since he was from Sarajevo. Like Ibrahim Spahić. The exhaust system was repaired just in time, since I was in a rush to return to Slovenia because my computer was also broken, and a repair specialist was on his way. I reached him in time! I had to leave the computer with him since its motherboard was broken, but Primož lent me one with my disk inside, so I was able to work without any delay for the next few weeks :-))

Why do I write all this?

This time, it all started in Ancona on the way to Greece by ferry with Iva. We had time almost all day, and I went "for a walk" alone and with an open heart. The first encounter was with a refugee from Sri Lanka, and when I sat on the bench next to him to eat, I offered him some food. I saw him as a person in trouble. He refused to take any food, and in short conversation he convinced me that he is not in a bad situation at all! He sees opportunities, knowing where and how to go to continue his life, and he is also in contact with his family!

I went on towards my destination, an old big palm tree in the middle of the town ... A friend. I could not find her ... I circled persistently around the area. Finally, I came to the "no tree any more" place, just a tree stump! WHY? Last time, it looked heathy, strong, biggest among many in the park, which were still there. For me, this palm tree was playing an important role as a pilar of vital connections and interactions blessing and interacting with Ancona. I stayed there for a while, and slowly, the palm tree appeared to be still there! Still existing on a nonphysical level, but actively present ... Still living. This is beyond imagination, but to grasp some of this, I had to open my heart very much, and this kept me going. Focused, peaceful observation, as well as acceptance of the adventures that come my way, being aware that I am doing my best, gave me a very special experience that I love to share with you, straight into the universe. THANK YOU ALL!

Ancona >>>

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Released by MED Land project, photos by BB, film by : Ida Glušič;  voice, words : ZlatkaFerlez

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Posted by bojanb
a couple of years ago

Exhibition »VENICE – EMBRYO OF THE NEW EARTH SPACE« is extended

 'Summary' : Six years ago, MED Land project started in Venice, and in 2020, Venice was again inspiring me in a new way. This year, the book “Venice - Embryo of the New Earth Space” was published, and the exhibition with the same title, on display in ZRC SAZU Atrium gallery from 22 December 2021, has been extended to 21 January 2022
NA DAN ZAPRTJA RAZSTAVE BOM V GALERIJI, da vam predstavim zgodbo projekta in da podpišem NOVO fotografsko knjigo, »Benetke – seme novega planetarnega prostora«, ki ponovno nagovarja izvorni prostor projekta MED Land: Benetke. Projekt je potekal v letu 2020, kjer nič ni ponovljenega , in se spogleduje z Benetkami kot prostorom inspiracije za preskok v novi svet in nove čase.


Še posebej pozivam tiste, ki ste podpirali, donirali in na različne načine sodelovali v projektu, da vam poklonim podpisano knjigo! Sicer pa je glede na izredno malo, butično naklado (120 knjig) in zelo kvaliteten tisk cena le 35 EUR! Pričakujem vas med 12h in 20h!

Risbe Marka Pogačnika (originali in fotografije Bojana Breclja, serija 3+2, natisnjene na arhivski papir in unikatno uokvirjene – format 27x41cm + okvir) – so zelo ugodno naprodaj: 250 EUR.

Kontakt: Galerija Fotografija, +386 1 25 11 529; info@galerijafotografija.si

NAJPREJ PA SI JIH OGLEJTE: Atrij ZRC SAZU, Novi Trg 2 do petka, 21. januarja 2022 do 21h (vstop brez PCT!)

Video  "about the projec> books> exhibition" in Slovene 

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Posted by bojanb
a couple of years ago

From Peloponnese(GR) to Hvar islaland, sailing and photography

 IZREDNA priložnost, da veš več o fotografiji in jadranju 

EXCELLENT opportunity to know more about photography and sailing >> in english below 

 pridruži se na deset dnevno pot po morju, na barki-jadrnici iz Grćije (Peloponeza ) do Jadrana (otoka Hvara -Stari Grad) kjer boš lahko ispopoplnjeval v fotografiji pod mentorstvom Bojana Breclja- Delavnica je idividualna-usklajene s tvojimi usmiritvami in izkušnjami-znanjem. Osnovna tema delavnice je sporazumevanje s svetlobo ( in senco ki rišeta podob,. mi pa jih dojemamo v neštetih oblikah- procesi opazovanja, tehnična znanja…

> Točka kjer isplujemo je Pylos, zahodna stran Peloponeza.  2-3 oktober 

>jaz bom v marini  1 oktober - petek zvečer

potujem iz Lj : 

29.9. GoOpti > Venezia ferry port 6.30,  38 Eur 

Venezia > Patras  33h(21h naslednji dan ) 95 EUR , prespim 23 EUR in naslednji dan bus do Pylos via Kalamata xxEUR

Prispevek za ućne ure, hrano, gorivo in vsi ostali stroški( dovoljenja za plovbo in pristanišča) so 280 EUR 

Pluje se z nočnimi postanki in malo daljšim na Itaki in Othoniju in Korčuli kjer bomo vstopili v Hr vode… 

Dan za tem pristanemo na Hvaru -Stari Grad, od koder je veš trajektov dnevno v Split. Od Splita do LJ , bom potoval z BlaBla car .. kar sproti urejam .

Priporočam da pogledaš MEDLand stran >> WGO da vidiš kako potujemo in  STORIES >> da vidiš kaj ustvarjamo 

Za vse pojasnila in prijavo SE JAVI NA 041765714 oz’ in bojanbrecelj5@gmail.com

PROSTORA JE ZA MAX DVA !    Srečno, bojan

in English : 

Join a ten-day trip by the sea, on a sailboat from Greece (Peloponnese) to the Adriatic (island of Hvar-Stari Grad) where you will be able to perfect your photography under the mentorship of Bojan Brecelj- The workshop is individual-coordinated with your composures and experiences- knowledge. The basic theme of the workshop is communication with light (and shadows that draw images, and we perceive them in countless forms - observation processes, technical knowledge…

The point where we start sail is Pylos on the  W side of the Peloponnese. October 2-3

I will be at the marina October 1 - Friday night

I travel from Lj:

29.9. GoOpti> Venezia ferry port 6.30, 38 Eur

Venice> Patras 33h (21h the next day) 95 EUR, sleep 23 EUR and the next day bus to Pylos via Kalamata

Contribution for lessons, food, fuel and all other costs (permits for navigation and ports) are 280 EUR

WE sail with night stops and a day or two stop on Ithaca and Othoni and Korcula where we will enter Hr vode…

The day after that we land on Hvar - Stari Grad, from where there are several ferries a day, to Split. From Split to LJ, I will travel with BlaBla car ... which I will reserve whene we anchor in Stari Grad.

I recommend you look at the MEDLand page >> WGO to see how we travel, and on STORIES >> to see what we createFor all explanations and registration, CALL 041765714 or bojanbrecelj5@gmail.com

SPACE IS FOR MAX TWO! , Good luck, Bojan

Nalu, Med Land Project

 

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Released by MED Land project 2021 June/ film Ida Glušič  editing:Ida Glušič, BB, photo: BB, voice : interview with Korinna Miliaraki

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Posted by bojanb
3 years ago

A discourse with Ikaria island

    Can We?        talk to the island 

Bojan >

The cause:

the inspiration to do the project in the Mediterranean was asking the Mediterranean cosmos about the present times: Who are you now? What is going on, who is taking advantage, if there is any, that goes beyond the wealth of the Mediterranean melting pot, where three continents meet over the great sea, and is now exploited by the principles of making decisions between people to control land and (mis)use resources ... Commercially, the Mediterranean stopped being interesting a long time ago. Trade routes go elsewhere ...

The way I can understand the evolution of civilization as recorded till now is based on "fertile land", generated by potentials of the "land", a place ,river, region, island, valley, mountain ...

I love to "go" ... Go around landscapes and seas. And connect, reflect and express "the beauty" that inspires me. But honestly, people who do live here, connected to the place, developing more sustainable, in-depended, inventive and community sharing-orientated lives, can really speak of the potentials for a new peaceful, compassionate, interconnected civilization, which I am longing for. The Mediterranean gave birth to many advanced civilizations periods, which meant a big push, especially for the Western civilization. Now? Now it is beautiful, pleasant, highly vibrant, with strong streams of deep sea and moving air, strong winds, hundreds of “chill out” place, islands. 

The future in general, as the Mediterranean actually thought me, it is not only something new that is being born in this place(s) , or in the Andes, or in the Himalayas, or on the Nile ... But it is based on the connected world of numerous entities, places, living beings, elemental beings, strings-streams like harmonious resonances led by life itself.

My lead to Ikaria >> "I wanted to meet Christodoulos Xenakis" and here is his STORY, after we did quite some special things together and I spent great time with him, being his guest and visiting places, people together... Connecting with Ikaria.

But, there is another side: Ivana, Tea and Marko DID "speak directly" to the land land and sea winds of Ikaria, and I also responded with images ...

Ivana Petan / ivanapetan.com

Ikaria &Ivana

I recognized the shape of Ikaria island as a phallus, where life energy enters and accumulates on its west side and travels up to the east side. While the west side of the island felt deeply connected with fire and earth element, as a place where cosmos information gets embodied, I sensed the east side to be more of water and air quality, embodying the uniqueness of Ikaria and sharing it with the outer space. The deepest and crucial experience which shaped my understanding of Ikaria's primal quality was a visit to an ancient Ranthi forest in the middle of Ikaria. Ranthi forest opened to me as the centre of the island, formed as a double pyramid, one up to the top of the sky and the other down to the earth core. There, in my vision, I met a woman, with closed eyes, her hair gently swaying in the air, continuously caressed by the wind. I recognized her as the primal quality of the island, a feminine strength as an aspect of every human essence, which embraces acceptance, patience, openness, a silent open heart and invisible endurance, until the time for a cycle-change arrives. But, as I sensed, this cycle-change has not yet arrived, it is still being waited for. Therefore, a woman is getting frozen, unrealized, but without worries, she continues to persist, forever.

During the time spent on Ikaria, I felt its connection with the island of Crete. One of its aspects is named in the sole name of Ikaria, coming from the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, who didn't obey his father Daedalus, flew too high and too close to the sun, burnt his feather wings and ended his life falling down to the sea. For me, this myth also verbalizes the important quality of Ikaria. Distancing from the usual understanding of the myth, I focused on the flying aspect, pointing to the element of air, which among human qualities goes hand in hand with awareness. As such, awareness (Icarus, new) is always in relationship with tradition (Daedalus, old). In other words, the present moment is always in a relationship with the past. For me, it is important to reflect here on the question of the connection between the past and the present, and the embodiment of its answer. The past, reflecting in our ancestors and old knowledge, acts like grounding, the roots, and is not to be neglected and forgotten. But at the same time, can the past ways be taken as a priori ways of being in the present time? Did Icarus “fall” due to his “wrong”, un-traditional (patriarchal) decision, or did he choose, responsibility, to apply traditional ways in his own creative way, regardless of the consequences?

There were also dreams escorting my days on Ikaria, where many of them, in different aspects, touched and actualised the theme of feminine quality, abiding in every human being, in relationship with the current patriarchal system, and absence of its balance also on present Ikaria. In this sense, as another dominant quality of the island, the connection with the god Dionysus appeared to me. Dionysus is said to be born on Ikaria, which makes this island much prone to his character. In my understanding, the Dionysiac qualities could be (generally) seen as the prevalence of the heart quality over the reason, and are shown in the Icarian way of living still today: a slow way of living, patience, joyfulness, kindness, solidarity, having time for friends and celebrations, much distancing from the tourism and other aspects of consumerism. On Ikaria, time itself has a different quality and the way of spinning, and contains many feminine qualities. But simultaneously, it is being suffocated and challenged by patriarchy, often unconsciously and unquestionably as “the normal way things are”. My vision of the Ranthi forest woman is one of its witnesses. Ikaria is the place where this imbalance between two main dwelling qualities can be deeply sensed and reflected upon for possibilities of its re-tuning. 

For all this, I sense Ikaria as an important place for supporting and implementing the changes needed for a new world cycle to begin, primarily growing from a different human relationship philosophy.



The Place where Icarus landed 

Friday, November 13, 2020, canyon at Raches

In my vision, I saw dragons circling over the canyon. One descended mightily, grabbed a large egg in the canyon, and watched it with great enthusiasm. The egg cracked and a yellow chicken looked out of it. Its energy was that of joy to be born, openness, joyful anticipation of further events.

As I understand this experience now, this place has the quality of the original primal energy in its purity, or perhaps a quality associated with new space. Is it possible to get an impulse of the new space in this place, also connected with the gift of the inner power to live this impulse?

Saturday, November 21, 2020, the same canyon at Raches, by the rock in the sea (Bojan sent a photo), near the outflow into the sea

This place was shown to me in the form of a huge golden vessel of a round Yin shape, bottomless, from which the seeds of the primal Gaia energy are supposed to arise, be catapulted into space to fertilize it. But the vessel looked more like a memory from the past, not present here and now, perhaps even turned upside down and thus closed? Perhaps this was done with some ritual in the past for protection? Nonetheless, now, with the vessel being like this, the Gaia powers of the new space remain unattainable.

Bojan and I decided to turn over the vessel by inviting the cosmic dragons to do the work with our support. In a vision, I saw the dragons turning the vessel. Other dragons flew out of it and connected with the ones helping. There was a joy of reunion and re-connection. Their flight was accompanied by little dragons – in the form of egg-like seeds that freely “buzzed” around the space. And it seemed to me that we were both recognized by the dragons and blessed.

Tuesday, November 17, 2020, valley under Katafigio

In my vision, I saw turquoise water, an enormous amount of it, falling from both banks into the valley and filling it. From the sky, golden water is falling. A man is swimming upstream, up the valley, and at the end of the path, a golden sun awaits him. Over the valley circles the eagle, observing intently the whole valley and its particular places.

My reading of this vision recognizes this valley as a place that supports individuality, intuitive decisions and intentions based on the heart and dedication, with no consideration of their consistency with the majority. opinion. Support for these decisions comes from the sky, that is, from the spiritual world.

And the eagle, he is capable of both: observing intently both the whole and its parts. So does the eagle bring awareness of the whole and its building parts?

Wednesday, November 25, 2020, by the river Meganitis, 1 km towards Karkinagra

When connecting with the place, a beam, a ray of light entered my heart on the front side and exited through the heart on my back. I felt the place as not soli, but as a water space with waves.

I experienced this place as a place that allows a contact with the causal body – the causal bodies of our incarnations, to give us an insight into who we all are (in addition to the present embodied self), and from this knowledge to build our current path.

I looked at Bojan – he turned into a “fan” of Bojans: to the left and right of his last incarnation, there were many more Bojans …


Tea and Marko (as well as Ivana in some places) "connected", observed and experienced places telepathically! Marko and Tea were never physically on Ikaria ... How did it happen? Many times "through" Gregor or me or Ivana, being physically on certain spots and meditating at the same time. It is very strong and truthful. 

Tea & Ikaria

I visited Icaria a bit differently than people usually do. I went there in my inner space of perception, connecting with the MedLand people there, who were exploring the island in a geomantic manner. While connecting to the ethereal space, I started to float above the landscape of Icaria, above the entire island. Partly, I was present in its embodied form, partly in its realm of emotions and consciousness. I felt strongly intertwined with Gaia, which allowed me to be present on both those levels.

I felt the omnipresence of water and its important role in creating new levels of being. In this beautiful experience, I sensed that Gaia is transmitting the archetypical inscription of Life into new dimensions of sustenance through the water. The water in that regard was not only perceived in terms of a vast sea surrounding the island, but especially as a consciousness enabling the manifestation of all living creatures. I sensed the primordial connection of the island with the Sun, but simultaneously, I experienced that Icaria started to cooperate immensely with the Moon – the celestial entity, which is attracting the massive water of the oceans and seas and the water within our body to the dancing tides. I perceived this cooperation as the evocation of the female principle, as a Yin symbol, which is yet to become balanced with the Yang. There was a strong impulse within my heart space, through which a specific sensation emerged: we have to raise the vibration of our heart and of all our being, and thus become deeply attuned to love and joy. Only this transformation can open us to new dimensions of harmonious living. When attached to them, we can become powerful co-creators of new realms emerging out of our heart coherence with All-that-is. Gaia is calling us and wants us to participate in this loving co-creation. I was deeply touched by the gift that Icaria gave me through my sensations.

I went deep into my heart, aware of my breath. I connected with my inner space of perception and attuned to the MedLand group, which was present physically on Icaria at that time. This allowed me to establish a profound connection with the Island. I opened myself to the new experiences that were waiting for me there. I found myself on the rocky part of the landscape. I was surrounded by rocks and stones. They looked very prodigious to me, resembling great wise elders from some other time. In a humble manner, I took a seat next to them and listened to their whispers in the light wind. I sensed them as entities with strong individual awareness, though at the same time, as those who are inextricably connected to the whole rocky layers of the Island and to the sea surrounding it. I approached them with a loving intention of establishing a connection. They revealed themselves as beings who are not just materialised but also strongly present in a plasma form. Accordingly, they are able to communicate with the subtle dimensions of the planet Gaia. Their whispers brought me closer to the Gaia’s songs and narratives of the new world, which is awaiting for us to come. I felt a warm stream in my plexus, which I understood as a connection of my own elemental being with those significant rocky beings. My heart was full of joy and happiness … In the evening, Bojan sent me an email that the location for the geopuncture circle was decided. I felt that new cosmograms, which are yet to be carved, will be echoed in the new spaces of harmonious cooperation between all earthly and celestial beings. 

 Marko & Ikaria

IKARIA – A PLACE THAT NEEDS A LOVING HAND OF CHANGE

At the end of February 2020, I was supposed to fly to Ikaria to get to know the place for a possible Geopuncture installation that we were planning to carve there in stone with an international group of artists. But the lockdown as a measure against Covid 19 pandemic prevented my flight. Luckily, my collaborators Ivana, Bojan and Gregor arrived there before the lockdown, so I was able to connect to them remotely and get some insights about the island. I would like to share three experiences that reached me via telepathic connection and with the help of a dream.

The day I was supposed to land with the airplane on Ikaria, February 28th, 2020, I had the following vision: 

I see the island turn upside down so that its mountains reach through the sea deep down into the Earth. Than, an arch like a large diadem appeared over the island (turned upside down) , embellished with animals and human figures showing unknown forms of some very distant culture. Under the diadem a feminine face of a Goddess appeared with a mysterious smile conveying the memory of a distant era of the planetary evolution.

I interpret this vision as saying that Ikaria has roots in a culture that existed beyond the horizon of our space and time. It treasures memories of that distant culture that could be meaningful for our time of great changes. But there is obviously no connection yet between then and now. This notion was confirmed after I imagined holding hands with Ivana, Bojan and Gregor who were also on Ikaria at the time. I had a clear experience that we were not standing on the firm ground, but floating over the island in the air.

According to my experience, Ikaria is in a deep sleep, dreaming about its distant past, not fully present in here and now. The following dream of mine may hold a key to what needs to be done to open the treasures of Ikaria to the present time.

The night after I realised that no stone was found on the island that would be appropriate for our carving project, I had the following dream (March 4th, 2020):

I prepare myself to go on a boat for America. The path towards the harbour is under water, so I consider undressing and swimming towards the boat. But how to deal with my luggage? (1) Yet, there is another path leading to the harbour, which passes the top of the island. Heading there, I suddenly remember that I may have forgotten to take my passport with me. I search in my backpack – to no avail. (2) Arriving to the top of the island, I realize that the path to the harbour is grown over with thick bushes and thus useless for my intention (3). Now I look down to the harbour, but the boat for America is not to be seen. Instead, I see several half-rotten boats lying there, partly under water. (4)

After I tuned myself to Ikaria and meditated at the four points, my interpretation of the dream was as follows:

(1) I feel a strong connection to my coccyx, and then I see an etheric net, similar to fishing nets that are spread under the water all around the island. My insight says that some beings from the parallel worlds spread the net to protect the spiritual treasure of the island from being robbed in the era when Ikaria is asleep.



2) I connect the passport issue to the identity of Ikaria. The absence of the passport would mean that the true identity is lost. Looking with my inner eyes, I can see that the causal body of the island as the carrier of identity exists as a ball of etheric matter outside the island's body.

(3) Arriving to the top of the island and realising that the path is overgrown told me that the connection of Ikaria with the higher worlds is blocked. If this blockade is removed for a moment, I realize that Ikaria is a bridge between the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. I marvel at the beauty of the spiritual dimensions that Ikaria could open.

(4) The old useless boats are symbols of lost energetic connection lines to other parts of the Mediterranean, Greece and Asia Minor, which Ikaria once had and which need to be renewed and tuned to the present epoch of the planetary change.

On 8 March 2020, I was asked to experience in a telepathic way the place where we should build the mentioned Geopuncture installation with stones and carved cosmograms. My three colleagues called me on the phone when they arrived to the place, so that I could feel the place simultaneously with them.

I felt as if I was being lifted vertically high into the air over the island. Then the association came with the famous story from Greek mythology called “The Fall of Icarus”. Icarus had wings from feathers glued together with wax. Because he flew higher then proposed by his father Daedalus, the inventor of the wings, the wax melted under the sun, and Icarus fell into the sea close to the island that has since been named Ikaria.

Pondering over my experience and the myth, I believe there is a clear connection to the present conflict between the human civilization and the Earth, including her evolutions. Human culture develops technologies that overpower and control nature and its beings. In that moment of our evolution, when it seems that civilization is almighty, we must face severe consequences of the so-called “Climate Changes” and pandemic dangers that show the truth that Icarus had to experience at Ikaria.

Marko Pogačnik, UNESCO Artist for Peace

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Released by MED Land project , photography, editing: BB text editing - proofreading: Tadej Turnšek, godfather of the story Barbara Ćeferin

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Posted by bojanb
3 years ago

Coming back to the carob trees

In Crete, a true magic happened. By meeting Korinna, we got a chance to learn about the great value of carob trees, which they are willing to share with us.

Thanks to Korinna and a network of farmers and experts who actively promote, grow, breed and farm it, the carob tree is “coming back“ and bringing good to our common future. We visited Korinna’s friends, “carob activists“, old carob trees, and a carob forest in southern Crete. It became obvious there, that carob tree doesn't need much water to grow and bear fruits which can be eaten directly from the tree. Carob trees can be over 1000 years old and regenerate similar to the olive tree.

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Released by MED Land project 2021 June/ film Ida Glušič  editing:Ida Glušič, BB, photo: BB, voice : interview with Korinna Miliaraki

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Posted by bojanb
3 years ago

Bringing forest back to Earth -The Southern Lights project

film by  Ida Glušič

»The older the tree gets, the harder you can manage. If you have an avocado tree, which is like 5 m tall and you still pick avocados it is not the same thing as if it's 25 m high and you can not pick them anymore … So you just leave this avocado tree. It will still producing, but you will not be able to manage it. So you just go to the new land. It depends where you are on the earth. In the Amazon it will goes faster as you are in the Alps. It's gona take way more time to go into a primary forest. That's the idea to take the evolution of agroculture to the primary forest, which is defined by the death. Natural death of adult trees.«

http://thesouthernlights.org/ 

Quote about forest farming: Chan Sac Balam (collaborating with southern lights)More about Chan: https://permalab.fr/

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Released by MED Land project 2021 June/ film Ida Glušič  editing:Ida Glušič, BB, photo: BB, voice : interview with Sheila Darmos  

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