Here’s something I love about St. Vincent.

While some of us in the States make a conscious effort to live sustainably by doing things like trying to eat local, composting, or recycling, sustainable living just happens on St. Vincent. Fruits, vegetables, fish and the occasional goat come from just down the road, the warm and humid climate ensures the composting cycle is completed quickly whether it’s deliberate or not, and trash is kept to a minimum because the few goods available for purchase come with little packaging.

Here’s another example. Nzimbu Browne is a St. Vincent artist who creates masterpieces from banana leaves. Instead of purchasing art materials, he uses a waste product of the plant that provides St. Vincent’s economic livelihood. 

As a banana plant grows, the bottom leaves dry up, turn brown, and eventually fall off.

Dry banana leaves on ground. Blue bags are to protect the growing bananas.

Mr. Browne collects these dry leaves, cuts them into shapes and figures and creates impressive collages of local life.  He combs his island for specific varieties of bananas and plantains and says soil type and weather conditions affect texture and color.

What I love is that nowhere does Mr. Browne promote his work as environmentally conscious. He just does his work with the materials available to him because that’s how life is on St. Vincent.

That reminds me of a painting my daughter did a couple years ago on a small piece of smooth cedar bark she found.

I see a walk through the forest in our near future.

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