‘These children are the village’s youngest inhabitants. Though they are not immune to the knife-edge of grief, they also breathe new life onto the embers of hope, the promise of growth forestalled but not forgotten. Flowers herald the presence of a living world just outside of the frame, nature’s fecundity pressing impatiently on these images. In the words of Pablo Neruda, “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” As the old world is uprooted, it is the seedlings that will sprout and eventually flourish in the overturned soil.

The three children depicted here are children in age only. They heft the burden of the adult world on their young shoulders; circumstance has matured them far beyond their years. Perhaps it was the catastrophe that befell their village that pushed them to their fates. Despite growing far from the warmth of caring guardians, invisible to the sun’s rays, these children are a personification of resilience and the will to live.’ – María Berrío