As we mark GAIA’s twenty-fifth year, we’re taking a moment to honour the people, movements, and everyday acts of courage that shaped this global community. What began as a shared refusal to accept toxic, extractive systems has grown into a vibrant network pushing for justice, circularity, and care at every level.
To celebrate this milestone, Dr. Shahriar Hossain of the Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) in Bangladesh offers a poem that traces the quiet power of collective work from the ground up. It’s a reflection on how far we’ve come and a reminder of the roots that hold us steady as we face the years ahead.
Below is his tribute to the movement and everyone who has carried it forward.
Tide & Root: From Ash to Apples
Shahriar Hossain, Ph.D.
Twenty-five years — GAIA rose like tide and root,
quiet muscle, steady pulse, reclaiming our roots.
We flipped ash into seed; we refused to burn tomorrow;
we taught our children: refuse is not fate, but work to borrow.
Neighbors raised banners, set the kitchen table high —
grandmothers with compost scoops, youth mapping every by way.
We unmasked the smoke with stories, petitions, and hands;
we seized what was wasted and re-domesticated care in our lands.
From alley pots to island sands, our palms learned to sort and heal;
we composted histories and pressed them back into the soil.
Rubble of neglect became rich loam, rivers mended, markets steadied,
incinerators weakened as knowledge walked door to door, ready.
Repair, reuse, refuse — we rewove the small economies of home;
each household a workshop, each neighbor a step toward the comb.
A global choir — elders, youth, frontline keepers — braided practice into law;
this resistance cleared the air, cleaned our memory, demanded circular justice for all.
Twenty-five years of grit and grace: ash to apple, shame to neighborhood power.
Let the next decades be fuller, kinder, rooted in each home and hour.
Whole and together — we commit, we keep, we rise: we are the work, the promise, the morning’s steady prize.
