Native Sea (Il Mare Originario)

Sicily, Italy.

A dive in my native sea with my child son awakes me on the fact that the environmental crisis - the most terrifying in an age of many crises - is not an abstract concept but an existential threat. As I cross with him the border between the aerobic world where we belong and the magic blue where we can venture but not survive for long - I see the lights, colours and smells that shaped my heart and taught me the wordless lessons that still guide my life. In my near-by town, Catania, everything - the fish market, the religious procession, the alleys - speaks of hard survival in a world that is not perfect. Inside my native sea, everything speaks of the marvel of life and of the fact that nobody will come and save this Kingdom if I don't. For me, there can be no attempt to work to a solution to the existential climate crisis if I do not - first of all - descend and reconnect with the environment that bred me and which I am truly just a part of.