THE FOREST THAT DIES

(... .. The dying and sick forest is the symbol of a disease that also devastates the ecology of the mind and heart .... Claudio Magris in The infinite travel ") This project stems from the need to document the conditions of a monumental cork forest, located in the territory of Monte San Biagio (LT), a few kilometers from where I live. The events related to the pandemic gave me a different sensitivity in dealing with this work, in which I saw many similarities with what has happened and is happening to mankind. For some years the forest has been suffering from desiccation due to a fungus which, together with other contributing causes, including pollution, climate change and some parasites, such as the oak processionary moth and Phytophthora cinnamomi, are literally consuming plants to kill them. How many things do plants and other animals have in common with humans? How many have viruses and parasites? Organisms infinitesimally small, compared to their hosts, but capable of destroying them. Another reflection before concluding this presentation refers to the human race: the only animal unable to live in synergy with nature, capable, with its own actions, of carrying out acts and behaviors that contribute to destroying this planet and other beings. living beings that populate it.