This year I attended an eco leaf printing workshop with Rita Trafford who farms in Blaauwklippen where the source of the Blaauwklippen River lies. I stayed at Keermont Farm next door, and was able to walk everywhere on my own, seeing the land and the rich fynbos heritage through my forebears’ eyes. It felt as though I were coming home, after the long disconnect with that land as my family’s farm was in the same valley. I also have Khoi heritage and through them I would also have inherited a close appreciation of being a First Nation people being inextricably linked to the land, and living off this land. I am currently exploring the interlinked nature of this mixed heritage regarding colonial use and first nations’ use of this land. I discovered my one forebear looked after the other one’s children when she was banished to Robben Island. Leaves therefore have been used in this piece as powerful metaphors of conscious and subconscious memory. I used leaves that were used to print onto fabric and paper, the oak, vine, protea and restio, wild almond, as well as silver leaves from my own tree and some leaves from Pringle Bay fynbos. The uprooting refers to my Khoi forebears being uprooted from their land by the Dutch, as well as my immediate family leaving the farm. Like memory, some of the leaves are depicted clear and others blurred; some are glamorized and others are imperfect; some appear disjointed while others are detailed and connected to others, and some appear clear from far and hazy when up close. Some are pushed behind and others advance; some protect, while others are uprooted and vulnerable. The Silver Tree, one of my favourites due to the beautiful shine on the iridescent leaves, is endangered, and faces uprooting.