‘If is not trash, is sargasso’

This photo captures the timeworn shoreline at Potworks, Nevis, scarred by wind and sea, by storm surges and relentless sea level rise. In recent years, this fragile coast has been besieged by abandoned and discarded fishing gear and massive influxes of sargassum that choke the fragile ecosystem. Here, the lament is familiar: ‘if is not trash, is sargasso.’ This caption, written in nation language, evokes nostalgia, despair, and hope—the constant ebb and flow of contradictions that Caribbean people endure in the face of climate change. If it is not one challenge, it is the next. Yet, weathered though we are, like the shoreline itself, we endure.