Finished reading "Uncle Vanya", a four-act play by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
It was first published in 1897 and premiered in Moscow two years later. Since then, "Uncle Vanya" has been performed numberless times in theatres in the West.
There is one scene which caught my attention, where one character says of another: "He says that forests are the ornaments of the earth, that they teach mankind to understand beauty and attune his mind to lofty sentiments. Forests temper a stern climate, and in countries where the climate is milder, less strength is wasted in the battle with nature, and the people are kind and gentle. The inhabitants of such countries are handsome, tractable, sensitive, graceful in speech and gesture."
Such sentiments couldn't have been more timely, bearing in mind the current controversy surrounding the exploitation of Guyana's rainforest.
