I want to share with you about an amazing painter Zahidah Zeytoun Millie , who  started kayaking through the Khor Al Beidah lagoon  and mangroves as a way of coping with the conflict in her home country of Syria. Her mother and sister still live in the war-torn country while she lives in UAE.

She  is mesmerized with the natural beauty of Khor Al Beidah lagoon  and chooses to kayak through Khor Al Beidah lagoon, once a week in the early morning.

She sets out in her kayak to paint the lagoon and its mangrove-lined channels to create a snapshot of the area for people who do not get the chance to see it up close – the way bright-green and yellow algae settle on the aerial roots of mangrove trees the way sunlight reflects off the water and the trees? dark green foliage

Along the route when she goes to kayak through Khor Al Beidah lagoon, she finds people's rubbish littered on the white sandy beaches and among the dark green tufts of low-lying salt-tolerant shrubs that make up the mangroves  ,she also finds plastic bottles and plates left over from a recent picnic.

She is sad to see next to the discarded nappy, a small flower with bright yellow petals – Cistanche tubulosa –  in full bloom. Her regular visits to the salt water mangroves are a way of admiring nature's ability to flourish despite people's waste.

Later, in her painter's studio, Zahidah displays watercolour sketches that capture the flower's gentle beauty. She says that by painting ,it helps her and  gives her great relief away from the bad news from her troubled and war torn native place.

As Zahidah kayaks deeper into the mangroves, away from the places that are popular with visitors, the area returns to its natural state.The water is shallow and clear enough to see large crabs darting underneath stones. A stingray flashes past before disappearing out of sight. Three large turtles stick their heads above the water to breathe.

Navigating through a narrow channel in low tide, Zahidah's kayak approaches a mudflat covered by what looks like a carpet of algae with thousands of small gastropods.

In the distance, a flock of flamingos are feeding. Eventually mangrove trees, some as tall as five metres, appear along the banks, the exposed roots home to tiny crabs and schools of small fish.

Surrounded by trees, Zahidah ties her kayak and takes out her brushes and paints.

While most people would call her works landscape paintings, she prefers to call them portraits.

Zahidah is preparing to exhibit her watercolour sketches and oil paintings in November. She hopes that by showing her work she will encourage more people to value the mangroves and protect them.

Isn't it appreciable that she is using art to cope up with troubles in her native country , to appreciate the natural beauty of mangroves and most important to convey a strong message and urge people NOT to throw litter around such beautiful landscapes and to interact with the environment and show love and care.

Besides litter, the area is also impacted by people harvesting the mangrove branches, presumably to feed them to their camels.