Cane

Marie Galante, a small island seemingly cut off from time, is still covered in sugarcane, devoted to sugarcane. The farms are family-run and only a few hectares in size.

Whether seasonal or permanent, almost everyone in Grand Anse is a planter. In the early hours of the morning or at the cooler times of the day, the workers return to their fields to harvest the cane. They cut the cane with sabres among their factory colleagues – thus saving the modest daily rates paid to Haitian cutters.

They hope that the yield per ton will enable them, once the cost of transport has been paid, to reimburse the costs of a year’s cultivation.

For the men of Grand Anse calculate their income without counting their hours of hard work: “in Marie Galante, we work”…