For Her #PlanetOrPlastic

For Her

There used to be times when he would stare at her glittering beauty, eyes full of love, as the sun sank in the distance. There used to be times when he would laugh and sing and shout with a joyous voice that could carry on for days on end, and she would never fail to listen to his fantastic tales. There used to be times when she still smiled.

When Samuel first opened his eyes, he was instantly captivated by the vast expanse of the azure ocean surrounding the island. As a child, he would often find himself gravitating towards the lapping waves over the shore as his feet sunk in the soft, ivory sand. The calls of albatrosses in the distance and the lulling sounds of waves crashing and receding from the shore drew him towards the ocean, and so he fell for it, vowing to preserve its beauty.

There was not a day when Samuel could be found separated from the ocean. The water gave him life, and he poured his love right back in. Seeing the passion in his eyes, his mother knew that he would let nothing taint his ocean. He and his ocean became inseparable.

Then one day, it came.

A foreign, plastic pipe found its way onto the shore, but Samuel thought nothing much of the pipe, so he took it and threw it in the fire pit beside the hut. Soon, the pipe was forgotten.

The next day, Samuel woke up with a throbbing headache. His heart was pounding, and he was struggling for breath. As he stumbled out of bed, he vaguely made out the door with the world spinning around him. He was desperate for fresh air. When Samuel grasped the door, he swung it open just as he hurled out yesterday's dinner. Incapacitated, Samuel lay on the ground trying to fight past the searing pressure in his head.

Suddenly, he remembered the pipe. The fumes from the pipe he had burned must have poisoned him in his sleep. As he slowly came to his senses, he realized she had brought the pipe to him that led him to be poisoned. Samuel was filled with rage as he turned towards the ocean he had long trusted, but rage transformed into shock as he saw the plastic island scarring her face. Miles upon miles of grocery bags, water bottles, and Q-tips littered the water before him.

Samuel was misty-eyed as a trickle of tears fell down his face. As he gazed off into the distance, he saw her being suffocated by the plastic island. The previously emerald waters were filled plastics that had drifted from afar, now polluting her waters once teeming with life.

Samuel slowly bent down and picked up a small plastic bag to put it in his basket. No matter how long it would take, he would keep his promise he had given long before.

One bag at a time, he would help clean the waters.

For her.