Hurricane Maria’s 280kph winds denuded the ancient forests that cover every canyon and valley on the island. Pockets of foliage remain, but Dominica’s very identity is at stake. A thousand hues of green have been stripped into a single shade of brown. Dominicans mourn the loss of their woodlands, but they know, having survived Erika – not to mention the ravages of Hurricane David in the 1970s – that the emerald canopy will grow back.

Photograph: Tomás Ayuso/IRIN