POCHINEI

It started with a bottle. I found it lying in the sand, not trash, something different. It showed me a future I never wanted to see.

Oceans full of waste, forests burned, people alone behind glass. Then Tara appeared. She didn't shout, she just looked at me and said, this doesn't have to happen, but someone has to remind them.

She gave me a task, not to fix the world, just to carry a message. To notice, to speak, to walk. So I left my island and I started looking.

The first one I met was Willow, a wooden spoon with more opinions than patience. He taught me that change begins before the mess. To refuse, to say no to what was never needed in the first place.

Not because it's easy, because it matters. Then there was Brew, an old cup with a crack and a quiet voice. She didn't tell me what to do, she reminded me what's worth keeping.

That reuse isn't second best, it's care, memory, respect. And then I met Bruno, a beetle who laughed more than anyone else I'd met. He talked about life like it was a circle, not a straight line.

Recycle, he said, isn't the end, it's a beginning. Even what breaks down can become something new. Each of them gave me a piece.

But still, I wonder, is it enough? Will people listen? Will it change anything? Tara told me that if I fail, the island I love, the sea I grew up with will disappear. And I don't know if I'm strong enough, but I haven't stopped walking.