Five heads, with their naked torsos, appear above a sea of white poppies in the middle of a yellowish and lonely plain. From afar, the scene is reminiscent of an oil painting by the impressionist painter Claude Monet. Up close, the panorama is less bucolic. They are two women and three men who have sneaked through a hole in the fence into an abandoned farm full of wild poppy plants, on the outskirts of the Toledo town of Ajofrín. “We are three friends who come from France to collect the poppies, like many people who come from other countries in Europe,” explains Justin, 34 years old. The other two are from Barcelona. They don't come for the showy white flowers, but for the blood of the plant. That's why they are called opium vampires.
