Excerpt from theconversation.com
Descriptions of the Caribbean have long reduced the region to the luring trinity of sun, sea and sand in order to market it as the ideal holiday destination. The splendour of its rainforests and the aquatic hues of its coral reefs are undeniably beautiful.
But Caribbean islands are also home to people, animals and other non-human species whose complex histories have been shaped by exploitative tourism.
In the west, the idea of a “paradise lost”, as popularised by Milton’s famous epic poem telling the story of Adam and Eve, gave rise to a hunt for “undiscovered” Edens still present on Earth.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, the appeal of an earthly paradise was at its zenith in Europe. Setting out with the intention of reaching East Asia to establish more effective intercontinental trade routes – as well as to spread Catholicism – Columbus seemed to be taking his cue from the Bible, whose Book of Genesis describes the garden of paradise as being planted “eastward in Eden”.
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