A minute with Eleni Phyla Visual artist, founder of Forest and Love (an experiential workshop outdoors)

Where do you live?
I live at a small village of the island, alone. I dream of having animals to care for, in the future.

What did you have for breakfast?
Fresh eggs from my beloved neighbour and decaf coffee.

Describe your perfect day
I love the sea and the mountains. Thus, in an ideal day I feel the sea water running on my skin, I sail and the air hits my smile, I walk in a forest and I breath that pine/ cedar smell, my eyes rest on endless mountaintops.

Best book ever read?
It is hard to pick a book and in addition it sadly became hard for me to finish a book nowadays. Social media made my attention span very short and I am working on it. I will choose a series that stayed with me since a child – Me And My Sister Clara by Dimiter Inkiow. I read children’s books as an adult too, so the choice is fair!

Best childhood memory?
Again picking one is hard but I am between spending time with my grandparents at the village or jumping waves at Argaka with my parents!

What is always in your fridge?
I would say Greek village yogurt, the thicker and more sour the better!!!

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
Car time is spent as self psychoanalysis time, so I just have the window open to feel the breeze and ideally listen to birds singing.

What’s your spirit animal?
Lion for the wildness and dolphin for the rich sentimental word and freedom.

What are you most proud of?
I do not like to be proud, it cultivates the ego. I like to be grateful. I am grateful for a lot of things. I am grateful for my level of freedom, for having nature close to my heart, for my parents, for my friends… for all the mysterious moments called life.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
Love Me If You Dare directed by Yann Samuell, the last scene where the two characters hug each other into eternity.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
I cannot choose between my dog who I badly miss or my grandfather who I now live at this home or my other grandfather who I never met.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
Even though Egypt, Cleopatra times is tempting, I would go back to my own timeline and do some improvements on my decisions at the time!

What is your greatest fear?
Losing the people I love.

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
Do more life planning.

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
Having different values from me.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
Say to those close to my heart how much I love them, hug each other for a long time, remember common memories together. And the last hour I would take a swim so that I would feel the water for the last time on my skin and die in the huge hug of the sea…