A Narrow Belt of Colour
A narrow belt of bright colour on the sea of monoclonal green;
An elongated oasis of life among the sterilised land;
A thin strand.
Within these tiny parameters,
Vestiges of what once was,
Nature makes its last stand.
Opher 7.6.2021
As I went for my daily walk here in early June I was heartened by the thick swathes of flowers on the verge and hedgerows of the country lane.
The other side of the hedge was a great sweeping field of wheat – identical plants, sown in rows, all the same age, carefully supplied with nutrients, sprayed with pesticide and herbicide and nurtured into a huge sweeping green desert in which nothing else can live.
The other side of the hedge was a sanitised nightmare.
One day, when we are gone, the verges and hedgerows will reclaim the fields, the vestiges will expand to become all, and the land will spring back to life again.