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Vigilo - Din l-Art Ħelwa Issue 55 • MAY 2021
Axing and bartering
TREES By Claire Bonello • Photos by Joe Attard
American President Franklin D. Roosevelt held strong views about trees. He once said, ‘A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people’.
I
t would seem that the prevailing sentiment held by Maltese government agencies is a million miles away from that. Rather than protecting, nurturing and promoting Malta’s diminishing tree cover, there seems to be a concerted effort to axe trees and urbanise natural and agricultural land. This attitude is encapsulated in Immanuel Mifsud’s poem, ‘Aqta Fjura u Ibni Kamra’ (Cut a Flower, Build a Room): Aqta’ fjura u ibni kamra; Aqla’ siġra u tella’ dar; Imxi metru, ibni villa; Tinkwetax… dak li sar sar. (Cut a flower, build a room Uproot a tree and build a house Move a metre, build a villa Don’t worry... what’s done is done.)
