my favorite leaf is cassava

my favorite leaf is cassava

Each favorite item comes from childhood, and cassava leaves are my tender memories in my hometown

When I was a boy, a daily task after waking up was to take the hoe and enter the garden. I´d find an empty place in the cassava field, hoe the ground, and dig a small hole. Then I’d take some leaves, I usually chose a yellow leaf if possible, to avoid hurting the tree too much. But sometimes the fresh green leaves also had to be sacrificed.

And after all, in the cyclical ritual of life, I’d expel what I no longer needed for a new day, clean up, and cover the hole with leaves then soil.

After many years, now my ritual mostly involves clean water and white paper. But the gentleness of green leaves on my skin is still in my memory.

001 - jaken - 31/10/2023