Ancestral Herbal Narratives

[0:11] Nicole Wines: First of all, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview. It’s, it’s really, I’m looking forward to getting to know you and a little bit more about your herbal practice. I met you very briefly at an event, and I saw your work just like a little bit that I saw, approached you to talk to you and you were so open to, to dialoguing more and to hooking this up. So I just wanna thank you. I really, really appreciate your willingness to talk and share your story.

[0:39] Jasmín Durán: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me and being here. I’m really excited.

[0:43] Nicole: So the first thing is to just quickly introduce yourself. If you could tell me your name, where you were born, where we are now.

[0:50] Jasmín: Yes. My name is Jasmín Durán and currently we are in upper Manhattan in Washington Heights, in unseated Lenape territory. And I was born in the Bronx, and lived in Queens for my very first years of life. And then, got a chance to live in Ecuador for a few years and then moved back to New York City in 2001, and moved up here to Washington Heights.

[1:25] Nicole: Great. I’m gonna start with a very big picture question.

[1:28] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[1:28] Nicole: What does the word healing mean to you?

[1:32] Jasmín: Yeah, this, I, I’ve really thought about this question in many different parts of my life, or chapters of my life. And one of the things that has come up for me is thinking about healing and the process of healing. One that it’s a process. And then two, the idea that we need language to understand our situation or circumstances or what has happened to us. And so one of the very first pieces, one of the first steps towards healing is kinda like that reckoning of this thing happened. I’m able to name it, I’m able to put a vocabulary on it. And then this deciding like, where is it that you wanna move from there? You know, like, and I think that currently we have so many beautiful healing practices that we can engage in, whether that’s herbalism, working with plant medicine, working with the land, whether that’s music, dancing, and so it’s really thinking about what it is that calls you the most. And that also is calling you back, right? It’s kind of this dialogue that we’re in with, our surroundings and saying like, hey, this thing is calling me back and I wanna engage in it. And kind of diving in and committing to being present with yourself because also it will not be easy, right? There’s also parts of it that will be really difficult as you continue to unearth and like peel the layers and understand that there’s so much that maybe you didn’t even understand or you didn’t know, right. Of things that maybe happened when you were a young person. That as we continue to mature and evolve, you start to see had an impact. And trauma, you know, whether that’s with a capital T or a little t looks different for everybody. And so it’s a moment of sitting with yourself and seeing like, what is it that is that’s calling you, making a commitment to moving in that direction and then, yeah. Being present.

[3:43] Nicole: Okay. Thank you. Throughout your lifetime, what connection have you had to herbalism and herbal healing?

[3:50] Jasmín: Yeah. This is such a good question. I, herbal practices and ancestral practices for me have been very present in my life since I was very young. And so from my mother’s side, both of my grandparents were curanderos in the pueblo that they’re from in Guerrero, Mexico. And, and so a lot of those practices that they work, that they, offer to folks in the community, we also had a chance to experience. And my mom was also able to save some of that when she migrated here to this country. So it could be anything from limpias. So using, herbal, herbal medicine, right? Using plantas, plantitas to help you with removing energy or cleansing energy or cleansing you. And that would be like topical. So using, un manojo, so like using like a bunch of, different kind of herbs, fresh herbs, and then using that on your body to move again, energy downward. And essentially out, also doing limpias with an egg, which is like really common in Mexico and other parts of just like, Latin America. And again, doing similar process of like using that to cleanse energy out. Anything from like baños with medicinal plants to infusions and just different teas too. And a lot of recetas caseras, so recetas, recipes that are, based on what is available and accessible. And I think that also is really important to name, that folks in other parts of the world, right? Herbalism for them is their main healthcare, and a lot of it has to do with accessibility and what’s growing around them. And so folks, right, would have built deep relationships with the plants that grow around them, and use ’em towards their healing.

[5:55] Nicole: So you mentioned your parents are both curanderos…

[5:59] Jasmín: My grandparents.

[5:59] Nicole: Your grandparents?

[6:00] Jasmín: Yes.

[6:00] Nicole: Your grandparents.

[6:01] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[6:01] Nicole: Do you, did, did you have the opportunity to meet them growing up? Did you know them growing up?

[6:06] Jasmín: Yeah, so both of my grandparents on my mom’s side, I, well, they’re my mom’s parents, they, now have transitioned. But when I was young, I did have, have very brief moments where I was able to experience them. And, and then more recently, the last time I ever saw my grandfather was like in 2000 and maybe like 17 or 18? And then that was a moment of, yeah, just learning about his practice and like having him do a lot of cleansing on me and like seeing the way that he understood the elements and the environment and, and how that’s impacting someone and how to help someone move through, through what they’re experiencing.

[6:57] Nicole: So you had an opportunity to learn directly from him?

[7:01] Jasmín: Yes, I did have an opportunity. It was very brief. In that, that year but it aligned beautifully with also me starting my own, like herbalism journey here in the States and like starting to, or working on a, excuse me, committing to an herbal, program. Yeah. Of study.

[7:24] Nicole: Did, do you have other people from your family that you learned from?

[7:29] Jasmín: I would say that my first teacher is my mom. And so she had, the task of migrating and then with her carrying as much as she could, from her life in Mexico. And, and so learning with my mom and seeing the way she approached, again, like disease or illness and like having it always having a spiritual component and never just being what you’re seeing, manifesting in the physical body, but always having this piece that, that we don’t see. But I think folks that are in this work can kind of understand right? That there is this, there is a spiritual, root cause, Mm-Hmm.

[8:22] Nicole: So you, you, your belief in that really comes from your family?

[8:30] Jasmín: Yes.

[8:30] Nicole: And from what you learned by observing them and learning, right? From your, your own ancestors?

[8:36] Jasmín: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. For us, in Mexico, like having, things like spirits, is a very common understanding of our surroundings. And, and it’s not that it brings us fear, it’s more so like we know that there is another world that we maybe can’t see, but maybe we feel in different ways we can connect in different ways. And so within the culture we do, for example, honor Dia de los muertos, right? Which is again, like almost a portal of, of time that’s allowing us to connect to another side, to the other side and to our ancestors that are no longer physically with us. And so I think for, for, because that is such, so present, culturally, we understand then that things that may be going in the spiritual world that absolutely impacting us, in the world that we see and feel right now.

[9:37] Nicole: Who are your other teachers? Who else have you learned over your, since you’ve committed to your practice and your learning your path?

[9:44] Jasmín: Yeah. Great question. Other teachers of mine include, Karen M. Rose, who is, an herbalist, a master herbalist, and she has an apothecary and botanica out in, Flatbush, Brooklyn. And she has been one of my main maestras where I am learning, where I, I again, committed to, continuing learning through her program. Other folks out in the West Coast. I also should name, folks like ??? from, at that time, was working with, or facilitating workshops and curriculum with Ancestral Apothecary School of Traditional Healing, I believe it was, I know that the name have, has switched recently. And Melissa Reyes too from Oakland, California. Who else? My, I wanna say my aunties and my grandma in Ecuador too. And I think the opportunities I’ve had to go back recently, being able to also ask so many questions, and I think that has been, you know, very healing too, has been like making these deeper connections around how does herbalism or ancestral knowledge, how has that remained or maintained, till today? You know, perhaps like, I, I wanna say my Ecuadorian family isn’t as, their lineage has been more colonized, especially in the last, like, generations where, for example, they’ve lost, maybe language they’ve lost, direct connection to land. You know, like my grandmother has a deep connection, but then all of her kids tried to, you know, went into the city and studied and kind of like went into a different route. And so within my Mexican family, that is still very present and my uncles and aunts have a deep relationship to land to this day. Whereas in my Ecuadorian side, it’s a little bit just like one generation removed. And, but then seeing that trajectory of like, there still is so much there, you know, in their day and in their everyday life and how they move, and again, how they see and interact with their surroundings. So there’s always this little bit of like, hope of reclaiming and restoring a connection that’s severed.

[12:39] Nicole: You mentioned your grandma and your aunties in Ecuador.

[12:41] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[12:42] Nicole: And the practices, what, what is it, are they herbalists as well or is it more the way that they integrate plants and herbs into their life, everyday life that you saw?

[12:52] Jasmín: The latter, for sure. It’s definitely, I think when, when we think of, for example, out like south of the border, right, of the US Mexico border, folks there, I think for them herbalism is such a big part of their every day where they don’t necessarily think of like, oh, I’m an herbalist. It’s more so like, this is what I do, this is how I live my life. And the value there is community care as well, right? They’re, they’re understanding that they’re also responsible for each other and who is around them, whether that’s family or that’s neighbors. And especially as we get into smaller, smaller communities or villages or pueblos, that feeling is a lot stronger. So I also need to be mindful of not romanticizing it. But there are these key values that upon migration and immigration get, they get lost. And with my, with my aunties, mis tías y mi abuelita, it’s more so like, they know these different plants, they grow them. As soon as anyone is sick, it’s like, go take this, go take that. And so the funny thing for me is that everybody will maybe, like, will have a different recipe or we’ll have a different plant that they go to. And so first we would go through all of those different options before going to see a doctor, right? A Western doctor. And I think the same is true for Mexico, where it’s like you would go through an array of traditional options first before a decision is made of like, okay, actually maybe we need an external hand.

[14:41] Nicole: And how are these knowledge sets passed generally, is it a formal kind of education, like, sit down and learn this, and you’re, we’re going to, we’re gonna talk about this plant today? Or is it, more passed through? You mentioned community care, just like community transmission, the act of doing and observing in your experience for you?

[15:02] Jasmín: Yeah, it definitely is the act of doing and observing and, and, in Latin America, and I also don’t wanna generalize, but, folks tend to stay within or near the home a lot more than, for example, here in the States. And you are constantly receiving information and like having that exchange happen very naturally, very organically within the home and within the cluster that you’re surrounded by. And so exposed through doing, the act of doing and then seeing, observing, making a note like, yeah, growing up my mom did this and did that. And so you’re like, okay, let me put it into practice. And then gen, I think ideally, or like, you know, the also by storytelling and sharing, right? Which I think is one of the ways that also is preserved here. It’s like through storytelling, because a lot of the plants that we work with down South, we don’t necessarily have full access to here. So it’s like a, a memory, oh, I remember this plant did this or did that. And then like, what is growing here that is maybe doing a similar thing?

[16:15] Nicole: Do you have any specific memories that stand out to a, a, a memory, a story, something that stands out to you from your family, either side of, of the, you know, being involved in these practices, of sharing them with others?

[16:31] Jasmín:Of sharing them with others… Hmm….

[16:34] Nicole: Including you, like just a, you know, maybe something that stands out to you from your visits with them?

[16:42] Jasmín: I think recently, I was in Ecuador earlier this year, and, I think something I saw and observed was a use of these medicinal plants that, in, for lack of a better way of saying this, I feel like kind of get taken for granted. You know, it’s, everybody uses, this cluster of herbs and they make a tea, they brew a tea, and it’s called, horchata, which in Mexico horchata is very different, right. It’s like, rice is a rice, water drink. And in Ecuador in, my family’s from La sierra, so from the mountain, mountainous regions, and yeah. And so it gets really cold there. So they brew this tea, and usually either it gets, they drink it warm and or cold. It can serve both purposes. It could be really cooling when you let it be cold, and then when it’s warm, it’s gonna be very warming to the body. And, yeah, they use an array of herbs, it’s like seven to ten herbs. And, and everyone has a different recipe, but it is, t’s just very common. And then going back recently, I was like, there’s so much here. Like, y’all are really creating and brewing this tea that’s so medicinal and so sweet and so good. And, but they’re not thinking about it that way. It’s more so they’re like, we drink this every day, we love it, and we’re gonna continue to do that till the end of time. And then I just was like, okay, I’m almost taking a step back and just observing, right? Like the, the way that, you know, ancestrally, for example, there are these things that have been created, right? These, I don’t know how to call them, like maybe patterns, right? But there are these, these, these practices, right, that have been created and that we just continue to enact and to do and to be in, but we don’t, like, sometimes we don’t think about them. So that was really something fun to be mindful of and see and observe folks even outside of my family, interact with that, medicine and I, and, I wonder if they would even call it medicine, you know, to them it’s just like, this is what we drink and we love it. Yeah.

[19:15] Nicole: It’s just a part of their everyday life.

[19:18] Jasmín: Yes.

[19:18] Nicole: Wow.

[19:18] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[19:25] Nicole: Can you talk a little bit more about your practice and what it is that, that you do with the herbs and herbal healing?

[19:32] Jasmín: Yes. Yeah, that, this for me has also shifted in the last couple of years, as I’m trying to find what feels best and most authentic to me. And, and so my, I am trained as a youth educator, and that is one of the things that I do. And, I learned early on that I really loved talking to folks and like having the ability and really the honor to introduce things and be like, hey, check this thing out. Do you like it? You’re gonna like. You know, but at least saying, hey, this is here. Take it if you , if you like it, if you don’t, just leave it. And, and through the process, doing so with herbalism too and being like, okay, this, I can, I love talking about plans to community members and, facilitating community workshops as often as I can. It’s one of the things that I do. Another thing is also mutual aid, which I think is the thing that brings me the most joy and feels the most authentic, is like being able to share plant medicine directly with different communities here in New York City. And focusing a lot on immigrant and migrant communities. Because that is my experience and that is experience with my family, being first generation daughter, right, of migrants and immigrants, and being the first generation to be born here, but also have had my own migration story of both leaving at a young age here, going to Ecuador, that being a whole new world, and then a couple years later returning and, not knowing the language, going through ESL classes. All of the things that comes with migration when you’re a young person and how, how, like yeah, how it just, it, it’s a lot. And, and, and so through my work, I’m able to see that in young people. I’m able to recognize it right away. ‘Cause I work a lot with migrant youth as well, and BIPOC youth, and just seeing different patterns of, shame of, yeah, like feeling lost, feeling like you don’t belong. Like all these different, deep emotions that will be very impactful as a young person continues to grow and develop. Also seeing, understanding assimilation. What does that do to the body? What does that, like physically, what does that do to the body? And so a lot of my work now is in a way, like preservation is saying, hey, you come from this very rich history and you should know that, you know, like, you should know that your families or ancestors have so much knowledge and wisdom and you carry that within you. And if you want, you can tap into it. You know, maybe not now when you’re 17, but maybe in like five years when you’re finishing college and you’re figuring out what to do with your life. So it, it’s, it feels a bit of, a process of rescuing and supporting others through that rescue.
Because I think when you understand yourself and you understand both that history, that trajectory, you feel very powerful. And like, it’s like, in your body, you feel present. And I think when we have a generation of folks that are very present and they know who they are, it’s very hard to, to unsettle them. And so whatever mission they have, right, whatever, whatever goals they have, whatever they may, may be working towards, it’s always important to, yeah. To support that in young people and in anyone really, right? Because again, it just moves someone into action with more ease versus having to deal with all of the in-between gray stuff that I think happens to a lot of people, when they don’t know who they are or where they come from, and it feels, yeah.

[23:55] Nicole: It sounds to me like in your education work, that you really do pushand keep that connection close, like at the forefront, the idea of these being ancestral practices and connecting to ancestral knowledge and having those connections.

[24:11] Jasmín: Yes, absolutely. I, it’s like, a practice of memory, and also for myself, so healing, because it becomes very validating to my experience and say like, this is actually what I went through and, now I’m able to share with you. And again, whether or not they do something with it later, I think that’s, you know, outside of, of anyone’s control, but it’s more so that memory of this thing is here I can maybe look into a little bit later if I feel like I need it. And I think oftentimes there’s always a point of I need something to support me. Where do I look? What do I do? And so the idea is to have that like, oh, I remember this thing. Mm-Hmm.

[25:01] Nicole: That’s really great. You touched on this a little bit, a lot, really, but, specific to, to you and your cultural background traditions, your, your cultural background. How, how is, are these healing traditions connected culturally for you in your experience?

[25:30] Jasmín: How are they connected to me?

[25:31] Nicole: Like in a cultural sense, right?

[25:35] Jasmín: Yes.

[25:35] Nicole: So herbs and plants are universal. I mean, you’ve talked a lot about it, your culture, your background, your ancestry. What, what is for you, the way, what might be different for you in your culture, in your traditions, in terms of like the learning and the passing down of these traditions or the way that herbs and plants are used, kinda more traditionally versus in modern times?

[26:03] Jasmín: Hmm. Yeah. I, I, for me, having that understanding of how plants are used spiritually, really broadens my practice, I think here in the East Coast, for example, in the US. So-called US. And and we think of, I think herbalism sometimes can be seen very, maybe a little bit extractive, where it’s like, this plant does this thing for me, and that’s it, right? And so, culturally, spiritually, we know and understand that it is a relationship, we’re building a relationship. And the relationship is based on our understanding of the elements. For example, our understanding of, again, our surroundings and seeing sacredness in that and seeing sacredness in the animals and their journey in, in the plants in each other. And, and so having that context now, being able to use it here, I think within my practice, it allows me to expand that consciousness for folks or support them in that expansion of yes, plants can do that for you, but it also is asking for a different kind of connection then just taking, right. It’s asking for reciprocity, right? And like that value being something that has been lost, in many ways, because of capitalism, right? And the way that we now have learned, to engage with each other, with our world, with our surroundings, where it’s, you know, this consistent, and constant taking and taking and taking and taking, taking. And so, yeah, I think when we start beginning, when we begin to work with plant medicine, it’s asking for a little bit more. And it’s saying, you have capacity to do that, you know? And again, you know, I say that with a grain of salt because, or take that with a grain of salt, because I think access also plays a really big role within our context and that should not be also forgotten, right? Yeah. If, for example, a mother, a migrant mother is working, you know, they don’t have time to perhaps build a reciprocity with the land immediately or right away, they right, their priorities have shifted. But when we do have space and time, I think that we have the ability to, yeah.

[29:06] Nicole: You spoke a a lot about spirit and healing.

[29:08] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[29:09] Nicole: Can you to like connected, but can you speak a little bit to the idea of energy and what that has to do with healing and with the plants that we use in herbal practices?

[29:21] Jasmín: Yeah. So, I wanna say they’re somewhat interchangeable, you know, so the idea of energy or somewhat of the spirit, of a plant. And I feel like that also broadens our understanding of plants beyond it being, you know, this, entity that we just look at and we’re like, oh, maybe it smells beautiful. It looks pretty, we’re attracted to it. It also makes it so it becomes a being, you know, and that being is offering their medicine to you, their energy, their spirit, you know, for your, for you to be able to feel better, or feel grounded, whatever it may be. You know, different plants have different, medicinal attributes. So yeah. I hope that answers the question a little bit.

[30:15] Nicole: It does, It does. Thank you. Do you feel that we’re in danger as a society of losing our connection to these practices?

[30:37] Jasmín:I wanna say it’s both. I think it’s a yes and a no. I think there are practices that have been lost, and I think the ones that remain, there are folks that are, there are elders that they understand one of their tasks or duty duties is to keep that tradition alive or that practice alive. And so they will foster relationships with folks in their community in order to maintain that lineage. And at the same time, we also have, I think a lot of folks that live in the diaspora that are seeking to learn and to reestablish, right, that severed connection that I mentioned earlier, and that are looking for ways to reconnect and maybe they’re not reconnecting with traditions that are necessarily, like explicit to their lineage. And that’s okay. I think that, it’s important to cultivate an understanding and, and then that can be transferred and used, you know, even like, for example, if one were to move to a different place, right? But like knowing that you can connect to the plants that are living near you, and if you move that, they’ll, they’ll be new, they’ll be all new perhaps. And so, you know, having that, ability to say, hey, I can connect with these too Yeah. And like kind of rebuilding again, sacredness and reverence with your surroundings and everything that includes that is part of those surroundings.

[32:21] Nicole: Why is it so important to preserve these practices in your opinion?

[32:30] Jasmín: Hmm. It’s really important to preserve these, and, and I think, I urge the preservation of them because, these ways of healing, of doing ancestral work, for example, or connecting to our central ways, they feel most aligned with our planet and our, and the Earth, in our Earth. And, and so, they, again, they recognize the spirit in, in everything around and, and everything that exists, and therefore will walk with caution and will walk with reverence. And I think, again, the system that we’re currently in has stripped that away completely. And so, choosing a system or choosing a way of life or choosing practices that allows, allow for that reconnection or allow for that relationship to build, that is more sustainable. You know, a relationship that is almost like free of any, any weight or any heaviness, because it’s not, it, it’s not extractive, it’s not taking, it’s more so, hey, we’re in relationship to each other. How are we going to best continue to coexist? How can I respect you? How can you respect me?
How do you respect me? How do you care for me? Right? It allows for a more or less harmful experience on the Earth. Yeah.

[34:32] Nicole: That’s true. I agree 100%. You mentioned that earlier, that in your family you’re seeing a change through the generations, or you’ve seen a change since just within that last generation. How do you see yourself as someone who can help to preserve that within your family when, when it’s being lost in others, but you’re picking this up, what, what would you hope for, for that?

[35:09] Jasmín: Yeah. I had thought about this very deeply while I was in Ecuador because, I was asking so many questions, and my aunts were very curious. They were just like, why are you, like, why is this important? Or why it almost, it felt, it gave them the opportunity also to reflect on, hey, this is valuable, you know, know this matters and it’s important for us to pass it down. And so I think prep in my family, I’ve become a bit of a reflection back, you know, a mirror being like, hey, I’m enormously I feel so called to this. I hope you see too, like I’m learning from you. And, you carry so much knowledge as well. And, you know, I think it’s really important too, as a point of decolonizing and decolonization of saying, hey, you may not have a degree on this, within our terminology, but you hold so much knowledge and wisdom and that is very valuable, and, it should be passed on. It shouldn’t just, you know, one shouldn’t just think that it, that it should just die there, right? Or that it should know it shouldn’t continue. And I, I think that we see that a lot with elders in different communities, where they feel that maybe it shouldn’t get passed out anymore. No one’s gonna listen. The youth wanna do other things, they wanna move on into different careers, et cetera, et cetera. And so also urging folks, and elders to continue to pass on that knowledge as much as they’re able to. And, and I think also my work has a lot to do with that is saying to a young person, hey, this may not be cool to you right now. This may not be, the thing that is gonna spark major interests in your life, but it’s here. And so it’s almost like work that has to be done on both generations, both the generation perhaps that holds, right, like elders, wisdom keepers, and then the young folks that, are being born and are being born into a completely different life and, ways of, of doing things. For example, now with so much technology, right? Like a plant, what, you know, like, I have this iPad, or I have this phone. Yeah, yeah.

[37:59] Nicole: You mentioned you lived in Ecuador for a while. You grew, you were born in New York City, you grew up in New York City, but you lived in Ecuador. You mentioned differences between your family in Mexico.

[38:09] Jasmín: Mm-Hmm.

[38:10] Nicole: And your family in Ecuador in terms of land and connection to the land. And now you live here in New York City where land is scarce. Yeah.

[38:20] Nicole: Access to land is not an easy thing. How do you navigate that? How do you build your relationship to the land in a place where a lot of people don’t have that access to actual physical land?

[38:31] Jasmín: Yeah. Yeah, when I came back to the US and I was like eight or nine years old in 2001, I remember that was a moment of, almost like radicalization. Radicalization. Where I remember just being like, hey, why don’t I have access to just a backyard or like land that I did when I was in Ecuador? And, and then I, you know, then realized once I started school and I started just really understanding the way that that, things work, that, one, we’re in an urban environment and so we’re constantly negotiating our use of space and land, our use of space rather. But two, that access to land, came somewhat with a privilege here, on, you know, the so called US. It wasn’t, allotted or all allowed for folks of color, for example, that maybe were living in inner city. And so, very early on too, I began to crave for, for that, but I, I couldn’t have it. We couldn’t afford it. We couldn’t afford to move, for example. And so it was like this longing for a very long time that I could only satisfy whenever I was able to return back home to the, to one of my homelands and be like, hey, I’m back here. Like, I can, I can breathe. I have some space. And I also think my parents tried really hard to replicate a little bit of what they had growing up here. And that meant Fort Tryon Park, that meant accessing the local parks as much as possible, and taking us on walks and taking us to, my dad like loves to do breathing exercises, and he, I remember being very young and going, and I used to hate it. I used to hate doing this. And now it’s something that I cherish and value so much. And so, you know, I’ve, as I continue to develop here in the city, I have learned more and more about the work that so many other folks have been doing for generations to be able to preserve different lots of land throughout the city. And, and these are now community gardens, and so there’s an array of community gardens. There’s over like 600 community gardens in New York City. Of course they all kind of serve different purposes and they do different things. And, I’ve had the opportunity to work, and volunteer at different ones, especially in the South Bronx, in Brooklyn, in lower Manhattan, lower East Side. And now I have the opportunity to be a member at Morning Glory Community Garden, which is a safe heaven, haven for me now. And I get to develop relationships to different plant allies there. And also eat some of the things that I grow and again, like really expand, my understanding of the world, and how the majority of, the, the world and the population right, continues to have this relationship to land outside of the US for example. But here it’s always, it’s so politicized and it’s so conflicting and challenging. Yet so many elders have done an enormous amount of work to allow us to have, you know, a little plot, scattered different plots scattered throughout New York City, where folks can engage and, and, both remember, but reestablish a little bit of that loss of connection to land.

[42:49] Nicole: I have one final question. It’s kind of a fun one. It wasn’t on my list.

[42:53] Jasmín: Yeah.

[42:55] Nicole: Do you have a particular plant, plant friend, plant ally that you really are feeling a close connection with right now? And if so, what and why?

[43:08] Jasmín: Yeah. So many. I, during my herbalism journey with Karen Rose, I, we had the opportunity to do these plant walks. And so that meant we were walking with one particular plant ally for however long, probably like a couple of months. And then we had to understand what we were receiving. And it was very free and free flowing in that you could, sleep with the plant under your pillow. You can make jewelry with your plant, you can, if you don’t wanna ingest it, you don’t have to, everybody, it was like, how, what are we receiving from the plant when we intentionally spend time with it? And so during my life I like to also engage with plants, like continue that practice of engaging with them and seeing like, what am I receiving? Right now I’m experiencing a lot of heartbreak, and so a lot of plans that are tending to my heart have been up on the top of the list. The one I’m most excited about is linden, which is a plan that is about to start blooming here in New York City. And we have so many linden trees. And so it has this little yellow flower. It has this very like, intoxicating, beautiful smell. And you will, you will see it and smell it in the next couple of months here in New York City. The leaf has a silver back. And so I think it’s could be pretty easy to, ID as well it’s a plant that supports with the tending to the heart, kinda like maintaining our heart open, and also nourishing our nervous system and supporting that process. Yeah, so could be used as a nervine. It is a nervine, heart opening plant, a little bit like rose too which has been, a plant that we can’t access here entirely. So we do have to get it, for example, shipped, shipped from other places that are, that do grow rose abundantly. So I use it sparingly and like with a lot of love because I know that, it’s coming from a long way and yeah, also very opening and and protective. Yeah. And I think those two have been very important to me right now.

[45:45] Nicole: Great. Thank you for sharing. Is there anything that else that you wanna share or last words that you’d like to leave us with?

[45:53] Jasmín: Mm. I just would encourage folks to, to offer, to give themselves, the space and time to, to connect with something that is very important to them, whether that’s plants or that’s music. I remember someone mentioned to me you can have all the plants available to you, but if you’re not making intentional time to connect, to drink, to smell, to take, you know, all the, using all your senses, right? Then you are not aligned for the medicine to, to penetrate and to come in and to, and to take care of you. And, and so, you know, even if you can carve out like five minutes out of your day, and again, really thinking about access and like what we have access to, yeah. And, and to allow yourself the gift of medicine and reciprocity.

[46:59] Nicole: Well, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing with us.

[47:02] Jasmín: Thank you. Thank you for having me.