Reprint from “Little Green Warrior: Amazonian Saga” by Francisco Ritta Bernardino & Leonide Principe, Manaus: PhotoAmazonica, 2002
Walking inland from the port, the Little Green Warrior feels like an emigrant that returns to her native town after a long absence, and finds it different, torn between the pleasure of the longed-for reunion and aversion to the strange elements that indecently occupy the place. The Little Green Warrior stands on the cemented-over ground and recalls the fields of the Earth Mother. “Walking barefoot on the soil restores communication with the Mother.” The wisdom whispered to her continues to murmur in the depths of her mind.
She looks at the sky, seeking between all the wires and buildings. “The light of Father Sun blesses you everyday.” The Little Green Warrior remembers, smiles and feels the reunion of the great family of all life. She understands the ancestor’s adoration of the sun, feels the heat of its rays, and can see the ancient rituals; she imagines their sacred ceremonies. “The Mother and the Father are with me,” she thinks, “they always were, always available, always nourishing my life and the life of all living beings.” And we, ungrateful humans, what do we do?
The Little Green Warrior looks around, and all she sees demonstrates the extent of our ingratitude. Each human activity shows some unheeding contribution to the great damage we are doing. On the riverbank, a young couple consumes soft drinks between one kiss and another. What will they do with that aluminum? A distinguished lady comes out of the supermarket accompanied by a boy who pushes a cart full of food. What did she buy? What is the proportion between what she really needs and the varied packaging? And what will become of all that plastic?
On the corner of the block, an old man is selling batteries: he doesn’t even give a thought to the fact that those small objects, after being used, will be thrown out, spread all over, rusting, with their poisonous charge leaking out into the earth. A few meters farther on, a mechanic changes the oil of a car and the dense liquid flows down the sidewalk to a precarious drain. He doesn’t know that this dirty oil is among the products mainly responsible for water contamination, and that particles of that same oil may one day appear on his table without his being aware of it. The owners of that car are preparing to spend a weekend at the beach. They’re also carrying a lot of baggage. Will they bring it all back? They are taking the plastic rings that hold the six-pack of soft drink cans. What will they do with these rings? Few people know that such transparent plastic ends up in the ocean and represents a serious threat to many animal species: a very large number of diving birds and fish die by getting caught in such unwitting traps increasingly scattered throughout the world.
All this is disheartening. Wherever one looks one sees the cultural habits of a civilization that seems to have opted, in all that it does, for the systemic destruction of the environment. All play a part with disconcerting spontaneity: it may be a child with a toy, a mother who changes her baby’s diaper, the baker who delivers bread in his car…..
The Little Green Warrior now sees things from another viewpoint. She sees the sad reality of her world and the questions become more insistent. “What can I do? It’s all so perfectly orchestrated, where will I find a way to introduce and change of habits into this cruel system? Every time the Little Green Warrior looks at the environment in which she has always lived her doubts implacably return and the conflict becomes more acute.
In the moments of greatest despair, when everything seems to be lost, a warm, serene feeling suddenly invades her soul, and then she again understands that despair can lead to resignation. She understands that she must hold on to her links with all the forces of nature. She must act, no matter how small her actions may be. She sees that she is not alone on the planet: that there are others who are beginning to notice the situation we are experiencing and that when each one makes some small gesture of love toward the Earth Mother, the change will begin to show.
She looks at the sky, seeking between all the wires and buildings. “The light of Father Sun blesses you everyday.” The Little Green Warrior remembers, smiles and feels the reunion of the great family of all life. She understands the ancestor’s adoration of the sun, feels the heat of its rays, and can see the ancient rituals; she imagines their sacred ceremonies. “The Mother and the Father are with me,” she thinks, “they always were, always available, always nourishing my life and the life of all living beings.” And we, ungrateful humans, what do we do?
The Little Green Warrior looks around, and all she sees demonstrates the extent of our ingratitude. Each human activity shows some unheeding contribution to the great damage we are doing. On the riverbank, a young couple consumes soft drinks between one kiss and another. What will they do with that aluminum? A distinguished lady comes out of the supermarket accompanied by a boy who pushes a cart full of food. What did she buy? What is the proportion between what she really needs and the varied packaging? And what will become of all that plastic?
On the corner of the block, an old man is selling batteries: he doesn’t even give a thought to the fact that those small objects, after being used, will be thrown out, spread all over, rusting, with their poisonous charge leaking out into the earth. A few meters farther on, a mechanic changes the oil of a car and the dense liquid flows down the sidewalk to a precarious drain. He doesn’t know that this dirty oil is among the products mainly responsible for water contamination, and that particles of that same oil may one day appear on his table without his being aware of it. The owners of that car are preparing to spend a weekend at the beach. They’re also carrying a lot of baggage. Will they bring it all back? They are taking the plastic rings that hold the six-pack of soft drink cans. What will they do with these rings? Few people know that such transparent plastic ends up in the ocean and represents a serious threat to many animal species: a very large number of diving birds and fish die by getting caught in such unwitting traps increasingly scattered throughout the world.
All this is disheartening. Wherever one looks one sees the cultural habits of a civilization that seems to have opted, in all that it does, for the systemic destruction of the environment. All play a part with disconcerting spontaneity: it may be a child with a toy, a mother who changes her baby’s diaper, the baker who delivers bread in his car…..
The Little Green Warrior now sees things from another viewpoint. She sees the sad reality of her world and the questions become more insistent. “What can I do? It’s all so perfectly orchestrated, where will I find a way to introduce and change of habits into this cruel system? Every time the Little Green Warrior looks at the environment in which she has always lived her doubts implacably return and the conflict becomes more acute.
In the moments of greatest despair, when everything seems to be lost, a warm, serene feeling suddenly invades her soul, and then she again understands that despair can lead to resignation. She understands that she must hold on to her links with all the forces of nature. She must act, no matter how small her actions may be. She sees that she is not alone on the planet: that there are others who are beginning to notice the situation we are experiencing and that when each one makes some small gesture of love toward the Earth Mother, the change will begin to show.
Quite some time passes. Everything seems to be always the same: the plastics and all sorts of chemical substances continue to invade the earth, the rivers, and the seas. Depredation and unawareness persist, but the Little Green Warrior’s way of seeing things has changed. Now she seeks out the cleaner places, requests permission of the guardians to show respect for that site, sees everything as part of the body of the Earth Mother, feels the pleasure of walking barefoot, follows the jasper-lined bed of a stream, enfolds herself in the age-old sound of a waterfall, listens to the voice of the wind, and soaks up the heat of the sun’s rays.
Now she feels the life that is in all things, even the big boulder on which she stands to admire the landscape. Something pulses in this being that preserves the memory of everything that ever happened in that place.
The Little Green Warrior gradually comes to see that the connection is being made inside herself, the same connection that the ancestors had, and she understands the drama of our society, completely isolated from the world we live in, locked up in an invisible and artificially created prison.
Right! How could we possibly see the damage we are wreaking if we no longer even belong to the great network of life? Yes, we must reconnect the ties that bind us to our Earth Mother, to Father Sun, to the Moon and to all the manifestations of nature.
Humbly, we must comprehend that no matter how marvelous our technology may be, we must develop it in harmony with the environment. We must allow the environment to teach us the infinity of things that could improve it.
But how shall we reconnect these ties?
Then the Little Green Warrior discovers the value of the small rituals that she has been incorporating to her life.
The sun is already coming up over the horizon, like it does every morning, and the Little Green Warrior begins her greeting……
Now she feels the life that is in all things, even the big boulder on which she stands to admire the landscape. Something pulses in this being that preserves the memory of everything that ever happened in that place.
The Little Green Warrior gradually comes to see that the connection is being made inside herself, the same connection that the ancestors had, and she understands the drama of our society, completely isolated from the world we live in, locked up in an invisible and artificially created prison.
Right! How could we possibly see the damage we are wreaking if we no longer even belong to the great network of life? Yes, we must reconnect the ties that bind us to our Earth Mother, to Father Sun, to the Moon and to all the manifestations of nature.
Humbly, we must comprehend that no matter how marvelous our technology may be, we must develop it in harmony with the environment. We must allow the environment to teach us the infinity of things that could improve it.
But how shall we reconnect these ties?
Then the Little Green Warrior discovers the value of the small rituals that she has been incorporating to her life.
The sun is already coming up over the horizon, like it does every morning, and the Little Green Warrior begins her greeting……
Reprint from “Little Green Warrior: Amazonian Saga” by Francisco Ritta Bernardino & Leonide Principe, Manaus: PhotoAmazonica, 2002
Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores social justice, nature spirituality, the ancestral arts, and resilience in times of massive change. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. |