Teak: a colonial tic
If there’s a nostalgic habit rooted in the European disposition, it’s that of strutting about in parcs and gardens, on terraces and balconies, on armchairs and recliners fashioned from exotic woods that have been cut in remote forests and sold in small shops and superstores plundering worldwide in order to make enormous profits at a ethically high price, and to create mega-ports for container ships measuring 350 meters long. Teak is in the highest demand and penchant for the wood has created a teak fever that smells like the steamers and elephants of yesteryear. Nothing beats this little piece of the past – this low-quality souvenir of a long gone era – for a conversation starter on sustainable development.
