Sad – but hopeful? – Wildlife & travel images by Darren Hector

Sad – but hopeful?

by Darren

This was made at the fruit market in Riga after the image which James posted yesterday, near both the bus station and the river. There are dozens of stalls, all with beautiful looking fresh fruit. The fruit is so colourful it almost looks unreal.

As the day comes to an end the stall holders leave their rotting produce on a table at the entrance to the market. As soon as the produce comes out so too do homeless men to look through and pick out the choicest pieces of fruit and vegetables. It was sad to watch people so desperate for food rummaging through rotting produce in the hope of something to eat. But at the same time it was encouraging to see that they did find some non-rotten food and that the stall holders thought about their fellow people enough to leave some food out rather than taking the easy option and just throwing it into a skip.