I live in a country that simultaneously holds a world record for biodiversity, cultural diversity, and agriculture, as well as for the persecution and killing of environmentalists, transgender people, and Indigenous peoples. Brazil is also the world record holder for deforestation.
Every month, newspapers report a new historical record. For instance, all six biomes in Brazil are shrinking: only 50% of the Cerrado biome remains and only 12% of the Atlantic Forest. In 2021 alone, fires destroyed more than 30% of the Pantanal biome. In my biome, the Amazon, we have already lost no less than 20% of its lifeforms. Furthermore, species are becoming extinct, the air is polluted, and Indigenous people live under threat because the opening up of the forest means free land for more prospectors, farmers and loggers, accelerating a chain of destruction and genocide like that of the Yanomami people. In my city, we can smell the fires in the air and the smoke from nearby forests stings our eyes. It is from these realities, consistently denied during the four years of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, that my works Terra Pelada (Bare Earth) and A porra da Árvore (A Fucking Tree) were born. Both are part of the series A Ultima Floresta (The Last Forest).