Living in Africa for a long time I have got used to have nature so much next to me. To taste it and use every day. 

I remember coming back to Europe after the first year in Morocco. The steward asked “what would you like to drink?”. I love orange juice. I drink it always at once. I have almost spit it out. The taste was awful. It was one of the best orange juices available in a carton box.

Everyone knows a fruit that travelled for a long time and finally have found us in a supermarket doesn’t taste as the one freshly picked from a tree. 

I remember the taste of Polish apples some twenty years ago. I don’t find it anymore. What have changed? The chemicals put into the ground and on the trees, the mass production and our lifestyle, changing the farmer into a capitalist entrepreneur, who needs to find his way to earn money. 

When we travel through those uncivilized landscapes of Africa, nature is still the ruler. People are guests in this world. 

Nobody wants to live without electricity, current water, internet, a gas or electric oven and so many more. We are getting used to each improvement quickly. It’s normal. I had enough after two months under tents in a magical place but without electricity, current water and only with fire to cook on. 

Are there some small changes that we could enter in our lives to help nature ?

Limiting the use of chemicals is one option. Do you know that you can clean your house with baking soda and vinegar ? I have started some time ago and I really do like the results and price also. I have stopped buying the paper towels to preserve some trees. I do need to have some more cloth towels though. Maybe you can find some tiny things that don’t really change your life but can be of some use for the nature. 

Do you like having a walk, a run in a forest, on a beach ? Smelling flowers, discovering different plants and its uses, I love. Sadly I always find some rubbish in all those places where nature should rule. 

Plastic packaging is an issue. 

I would like and I do try to buy everything in a local market. Still I do buy in supermarkets often, where everything is wrapped in plastic. 

There is no way to eliminate plastic in our lives now. We can just limit the use of it as much as we want. There are many ways ones we think about it. 

Yes, I had a year in my life when I stopped using all chemical products, eliminated plastic from my life, started to make everything on my own, to be sure it’s natural. I had time. Now I do my best. Life is composed of compromises. 

It doesn’t change the feeling while hugging a tree.