Issue #2

Death / Journey / Seeds

This issue explores ecodeath advocacy, ayahuasca's cultural significance, Kyrgyzstan's flora preservation, traditional farming in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Ana Mendieta's exploration of life and death, Antonina Savytska's intimate portrayal of loss, dacha life and seed dispersal photography.

Cover of Issue #2

Contents

End of Life Environmentalism
US environmentalists are challenging established death conventions by demonstrating alternatives to managing the end of life. These ecodeath advocates hope to ‘green’ the system by reducing or eliminating the environmental harms associated with current practices and finding creativeways for humans to reconnect with nature through death.

Communing with Nature
Drinking ayahuasca, an hallucinogenic brew made from vines found in the Amazon, is a central part of Indigenous culture in the region that, for better or worse, has become increasingly popular with domestic and international tourists.

Banking Our Future
Ethnobotanist Harriet Gendall joinsa team of scientists on a quest to bank the endangered flora of Kyrgyzstan. Their ambitious venture reveals how seed banking not only supports the flourishing of global biodiversity but can help germinate more meaningful alliances between people and plants.

EarthLore
WTLF spoke with Mashudu Takalani, who works with the EarthLore Foundation whose work focuses on helping small farming communities in Zimbabwe and South Africa to revive their traditional farming methods and the diversity of indigenous seeds that have evolved and adapted alongside humans and their environment for thousands of years.

Coco De Mer
Horticulturalist Paul Gazerwitz is enchanted by the curious life and history of the sea coconut.

Time is Running Out for Africa
Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate was concerned by a lack of awareness of the climate crisis in her country, and began a series of strikes to demand action from the government.

Bringing the Climate Crisis to Our Doorsteps
Climate change is more than just melting ice caps in a remote part of the world, it is an issue that affects us all, even if some of us don’t yet realise it.

Thirty Feet Up
Urban areas may be dominated by concrete, metal and smoke, but nature still finds a place to flourish. Ecosystems are thriving 30 feet above our heads, just out of sight.

One With The Elements
The late Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta’s Earth Body series explores life, death and the impermanence of existence, using her own body to create interventions in the landscape and recording the dialogue between them.

Death: The Giver of Life
We should celebrate death as a natural part of the life cycle, because it is the giver of future life and nourishment.

The Water Element of Five Element Taoist Medicine
The energetics of the five elements are a constant presence within the cosmos, our solar system, our earth and the vital life force behind everything we do.

The Garden Transcripts
The garden is a place of memory, movement and interaction - constantly shifting.

Zina and I
Ukrainian photographer Antonina Savytska shares an intimate portrait of her relationship with her aunt Zina, documenting her response to Zina’s death from cancer.

The Journey Home
‘Journey is in and around us, the heather plants, the wood, the world - a constant evolution in time and space.’

Defining the Dacha
Russian photographer Kate Kuzminova peels away from city living to experience the calm and tranquillity of dacha life.

Dispersal
Seeds come in as many different shapes, sizes and designs as the plants they are to become. They float, they fly, they stick and they burst. A photographic exploration of the structures and dispersal of seeds.

Issue #2

Death / Journey / Seeds

Become a Digital Subscriber access all of our stories

For a one-off payment of £30, gain unlimited online access to every issue of Where the Leaves Fall magazine, with no subscription required.

Stories from Issue #2