"The houses here are in competition about which one of them has the most beautiful paintings on its frontage. We make them by scratching the wall, that's why we call them scratches. There are special plasterers who do this job and there is some kind of rivalry among them. They don't all have the same talent, but they do share love for their craft".

Pretty words in Chios island can never end. The beautiful girls' eyelids are called "parpeles" in Volissos. The old lady sitting in front of her home's door in Olympoi is called Vestarckou, which means the daughter of Vestiarchis (in charge of the Emperor’s clothing). In the Aeolian dialect, which is still being used in this village, the father is called "páteras" and the mother is called "mítera", both accented on the antepenult.

“I began taking pictures of the island in 1987. Back then I was living in Athens and I wanted to prove to everyone I knew that Lemnos is a very beautiful island and that it was unfairly described as a barren land inhabited only by soldiers”.

Director Dimos Avdeliodis, creator of unique movies about life in the mastic villages of Chios, amongst which “The tree we used to hurt” is a sensitive and modest artist. He believes that the beauty of his homeland is not only hidden in images and photographs, but in the relationship between people and nature as well.

"Our trademark was created in 1863 and was named Apalarina, after the nickname given to my great grandfather. Back in the day, our shop used to work not only as a distillery but as a café as well. The customers were few and each one of them used to have their own table. The tourists who visited the café immediately left their tables when the regulars came in. Among the regulars there were fishermen and huntsmen, who used to tell tall tales in order to pass the time". 

Women are gathered in a warehouse at St. George Sykousis in Chios and are plucking red roses. They're moving their hands quickly as if they were jugglers and they are picking up all the petals that are destined for the preserves. They don't work silently. They sing, joke and laugh out loud.  They are restless women who are not content only doing the housework and they work with preserve industries in order to make some extra money.