/ 14ymedio
Havana/It was Wednesday and, on the corner of Factor and Conill, two Comunales workers faced an enemy that already seemed mythological: one of the many mountains of garbage in Havana, this time in Nuevo Vedado. Armed with shovels, they try to reduce what the blue containers can no longer contain: burst bags, wet cardboard, food remains and even an old flip-flop that peeks out among the flies.
The truck, older than the employees themselves, waits with the hatch open like a tired mouth. One of the men sighs before shoveling again, but the mass of waste barely reduces on the asphalt. “This is hard,” he says, while the other tries to shoo away the flies that are buzzing among the waste. A few meters away, the door of a warehouse, where the food that goes to the rationed market is stored, remains open.
The scene is captivating due to the tired pose of the workers and the contrasting colors that sunlight gives to the waste, but the stench steals the show. With each movement of the shovel, the pests stir and the stench sneaks through the blinds of a nearby building. Some neighbors look resigned from their balconies and are convinced that the monster has won, that, in the style of fantastic beasts, shortly after they collect a few cubic meters of remains, the tentacles of filth will sprout and grow again.
