Something breaks inside me every time I see an oasis in flames.
And I’m not just talking about nature: I’m talking about those inner oases, quiet, sacred places where we thought we were safe.
Oasi Lago Salso, right next to my hometown Manfredonia, has burned again. First a patch of reeds, then smoke, then flames running wild like panicked thoughts. And I, watching from afar, feel powerless—and deeply affected.
I often ask myself: what remains after the fire?
Sometimes only blackened pixels on the canvas of life. Sometimes, with courage, we can rearrange new fragments.
But we can’t go back.
And it hurts even more to think that in my beloved Gargano, fires have always been set. Again and again, people try to burn the beauty of a place that should instead fill us with wonder. As if beauty bothers us. As if we never really learned to protect it.
You can read more in this FoggiaToday article, which documents the latest fire.
So why?
Why does someone always choose to destroy what they can’t understand?
Why burn what is alive?
Is it really so easy to feel powerful when you’re that small inside?
Do they feel shame when they strike the match?
Or has arrogance devoured what was left of their brain?
Will there ever be justice to restore what’s lost?
Or will we always be left collecting fragments, wondering where we all went wrong?
Fire doesn’t just destroy matter
It burns borders.
It exposes the fragility of our systems—environmental, political, emotional.
It reminds us that beauty is not forever. And that protecting it demands more than just good intentions.
And you? What do you feel when a place you love goes up in smoke—when beauty you thought untouchable disappears?
📌 This reflection is part of my blog series Pixel in freedom: a visual and written diary of scattered thoughts and composed images, created to look at the world without filters—just nuance.
📎The first image featured in this article is taken from Antennasud.com and shows a bird of prey in the foreground with flames behind it – a powerful symbol of nature under threat.
