December 2019/January 2020, I went to this eerie place back home with @partel.oliva, it’s called “ The Savannah of the Petrified (Trees) “ I knew about this place as a kid but I did not go there a lot and never thought much of it. Back in 2019/2020, I believe it’s JR who told me that it was one of two of the oldest areas of Martinique. It is indeed the oldest part of the island along with L’île de la Caravelle, both belonging to what geologists call the Old Arc. The first part of the submerged lesser Antilles land to see the light of the day millions of years ago. It is called “Savannah of the Petrified” because allegedly it used to be full of beautiful incredible Petrified Woods scattered all over the place. It’s a phenomenon that happens through millions of years, buried all wood in contact with volcano ashes or water turns slowly into rock. Usually when it is discovered, it is studied, protected and used as a place of education for locals and tourists. But not in Martinique. The Savannah was looted, and “people” took those woods for resell or supposedly for their own home. So now History is gone. It is now just a cool place for hiking, and everyone can simply walk around and picture the ghosts of the petrified woods all around them. Fantasizing and wondering what they would actually look like (cf picture of some petrified woods all over the planet). When talking about this with @celia.p___, she pointed out and questioned the idea of value. What was worth those rocks to who? Locals? Connoisseurs? Scientists? Who decides to steal a piece of dna of the island and why? The commercial value of those rocks being insignificant compared to the its historical value and the precious informations it could give us regarding who we were. Yet we are left in an even darker place. At the same level of social abandonment it shows how we were never a priority of the French government, because if we were, those wooden rocks would still be there and would be a place of culture. Anyway, cool pictures though.