"Lost Treasure" attracts "Expo" visitors to its pavilion

Expo.. "Love Nut" is a Seychelles legend about fertility and love

• Photography: Eric Azrazas

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The Seychelles Island pavilion takes its visitors at Expo 2020 Dubai on an exciting journey to the island, which is known as “Paradise”, for its enchanting beauty and exciting legends, and its most famous landmarks, including the “Love Nut” tree, also known as “Coco de Mer”, which is One of the most famous coconut trees in the world, and begins to bear fruit after about 25 years of cultivation.

It is the destination of lovers, as a result of a prevailing culture, according to which it brings lovers closer, and multiplies fertility.

The legend says, as those in charge of the pavilion explain, that strange mating rituals that seem romantic in essence, combine male and female palm trees together to produce this rare and precious specimen of the love nut, which is very similar to human mating, and accepted by women, based on the culture Prevalent that it increases fertility and speeds up childbearing.

The story of the pirate Olivier Levassor, who was known as the "Buzzer" or "the Falcon", arouses the interest and enthusiasm of visitors to the Seychelles Pavilion, the island where he settled and hid his spoils to protect them from looting. The "falcon" stood on the gallows, just before his execution, and addressed the world in defiance: “Look for my treasure.

Whoever can do that becomes richer.”

The pavilion reviews the obsession of hundreds of treasure hunters around the world to visit the island, loaded with huge and advanced equipment and devices, in the hope of finding the largest lost treasure in history, which is the holdings of the “galleon” ship that stole its cargo, the “falcon”, and the value of the cargo is estimated at about one billion pounds. Sterling, as she carried the treasures of the Patriarch of the East Indies, who was accompanied by the Portuguese Viceroy.

It was easily captured by pirates, after it was damaged by a storm, and its captain had to throw down its cannons.

The cargo includes bars of gold, silver, diamonds and jewellery.

It is said that Levassor hid the treasure on the island of Seychelles, and challenged anyone to find it.

The Seychelles pavilion also contains an artistic painting that combines the cultures of the Emirates and Seychelles, called "Forsaken in the Ocean", designed by two artists from the two countries, to shed light on the problem of ocean pollution that threatens this natural paradise.

The painting was designed by Emirati Rawda Al Ketbi, a graduate of visual arts at Zayed University, and a Seychian, known as Maisel Griffiths.

The painting is a tribute to the common heritage of the UAE and Seychelles, which are united by a love of the sea and a desire to protect the aquatic environment.

Artist Rawda Al-Ketbi used plastic bottles to shape the fish that appear in the painting, to highlight the threat of plastic waste to the ocean environment and the future of islands such as the Seychelles, while Griffiths designed sculptures that were actually prepared from plastic waste, collected as part of a national project to clean the coral ocean on the island of Aldabra. The end is a joint artistic expression, to highlight the growing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.

Seychelles is taking advantage of the opportunity to participate in the Expo Dubai to shed light on the risks threatening its islands, including plastic waste and beach erosion by ocean waters.

She addressed the visitors with a humanitarian message, stating that "this paradise needs support and assistance. Every material support, even if it is simple, is poured into projects to preserve the marine environment and the fate of the residents of Seychelles."

The pavilion located in the Sustainability District also displays some of the investment opportunities available in Seychelles, the most important of which is eco-tourism, which relies on the nature reserves it has established to protect its heritage and landmarks.

• “Forsaken in the Ocean” is an artwork that embodies the interest of the UAE and Seychelles in the increasing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.