A male farm worker carries two blue plastic containers on his shoulders while moving through a dense long-staple cotton field in Nimrat Al-Basal village, El Mahalla El Kubra, Al-Gharbeya Governorate, Egypt. The worker wears a patterned shirt and a blue head wrap, typical of Egyptian agricultural laborers during the cotton harvest season. El Mahalla El Kubra is one of Egypt's most historically significant cotton-producing regions, and long-staple Egyptian cotton is internationally recognized as among the finest quality cotton in the world.