Soon after the financial crisis started in 2009 many Greeks, especially the young people, decided to do what they could to get away from the root of their troubles – unemployment, unaffordable housing, stress and aggressive city market-politics – and try something different. They chose to go back to their roots, in agriculture and farming, to cultivate their own land and find a new peace in harmony with Mother Earth.

In their opinion, this may not only be the way to survive the ongoing crisis but could actually be the social shift needed to become sustainably self-sufficient. They are seeking a better life, closer to the nature of their heritage, doing away with the negatives of their previous existence in the crowded and stressful big cities.

Here are some pictures from a small provincial town on Greece’s mainland. My homeland. I walk along a little dirt road and cross a field. The blue of the Ionian Sea spreads across the horizon. I reach a farm and meet Aris, he is picking vegetables for dinner.