Rocky lands

I just spent the last few days in Croatia, visiting the islands of Hvar and Kurcula. (Croatia has 1185 islands, only 47 are inhabited). The islands we visited have mountains and a stoney ground. However, travelling across the island we saw miles and miles of hillsides, criss-crossed with lines of piled rocks. At some places there were like small walls, in other places they were piled like small towers with an entry. In between the piled stones, the earth shined green, planted in some parts with olive trees, in others just green bushes. It made me think how many days or rock piling this had taken, centuries ago. How one person at a time, how whole communities engaged in clearing up the rocky lands so that some earth could be uncovered, recovered and made fertile for theirs and future generations.