When the inhabitants of Salento, the region at the “boot heel” of Italy, talk about “la xylella”, they use expressions such as “apocalypse”, “disaster” and “zero hour”. They speak of a “catastrophe of biblical proportions.” In recent years they have had to watch as the fire bacteria took away their most sacred thing: the centuries-old olive trees, some of which were over a thousand years old and whose large, silver-green treetops dominated large parts of the landscape. The olive trees were and are not only the most important source of income for countless residents and provide shade for people and animals in the sweltering midday heat: they are – or unfortunately all too often: they were part of the identity and culture of Salento.
