Hello Everyone, my name is Anu and I have been a part of this course since 2021 throughout the quarantine. I began this process of diving deeper into plant life because I am deeply invested in using plants and herbs for medicinal uses, such as making teas, oils, and tinctures, and wanted some more background in understanding everything related to plants from a scientific perspective. What I have learned and discovered throughout this journey has been incredible and impacted me for the better. Throughout this ethnobotany journey, I lost one of my close friends and my grandma who both enjoyed plants. So this specific course has opened my heart to reconnect with the plants from a lens of mourning, grievance, and also rebirth. I have been enjoying this process since traveling to Nigeria for the celebration of my grandmother’s passing. Reconnecting with the land after 8 years of not being here has revealed to me how much I want to know about each region and the states in which most of the useful, edible, and medicinal plants reside. We have a backyard with a lot of active plant life, as well as farmland we are aiming to begin planting on. So far, I have watched this journey of mine begin from the comfort of my own room to now in a different country applying this knowledge from the lens of a curious child. I cannot complain! My current and all-time favorite plant is aloe vera as it has always been very helpful for my dry skin, psoriasis I experience, and has personal connections to my grandmother. We have decided to plant some by her grave per my request of me. Here is a picture of an aloe vera plant that was near my grandmother’s grave.
