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If land had a language it would undoubtedly be plants and flowers.
 
If landscapes could make music they would sing in color. 
 
If there were translators or composers for these two it would be artisans, artists, chefs. 
 
Yet, Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass says it best:
How generously they (plants, animals, flowers) shower us with food, literally giving themselves so that we can live. But in the giving - their lives are also ensured. Our taking returns benefit to them in the circle of life making life, the chain of reciprocity. Living by the precepts of the Honorable Harvest—to take only what is given, to use it well, to be grateful for the gift, and to reciprocate the gift….
 
Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit. "
 
 
Some of the most joyful moments of my life are experienced around a dinner table (or taco stand). 
 
From the first time I visited Noma in Copenhagen, to every meal my mother cooks, even the mandatory tacos I savor when I come back home from a trip.
 
Food is the root that grounds us, connects us to the land, enlivens, and all around nurtures us. Food is the source of everything. 
 
I will never forget when René Redzepi and I exchanged how we both considered the precepts of the Honorable Harvest in Braiding Sweetgrass, essential to building our relationship to food. -
 
They go something like this: 
 
~ Know the ways of the ones who take care 
of you, so that you may take care of them.
~ Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
~ Ask permission before taking. 
Abide by the answer.
~ Never take the first. Never take the last.
~ Take only what you need.
~ Take only that which is given.
~ Never take more than half. 
Leave some for others.
~ Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
~ Use it respectfully. 
Never waste what you have taken.
~ Share.
~ Give thanks for what you have been given.
~ Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Reciprocity as an investment in abundance for both the eater and the eaten.
~ Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.
 
Just imagine how different our relationship to place would be if we were mindful of these?
 
Below Noma Vegetable Season 2022 / 
India / Mexico / Cuernavaca / Oaxaca 
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GET INSPIRED
What I consume is a source of vitality or dis-ease, how do I seek out an overall sense of nourishment when I travel? 
 
I´m not talking about a strict diet or depravation, but how do I thread myself with the land and its gifts? With the land and its people? Its colors, textures and flavors? 
CONNECT
Put the following into action: 
 
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Reciprocity as an investment in abundance for both the eater and the eaten. 
 
A gift can be as simple as a sincere thank you. 
REFLECT
"Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun."
 
Robin Wall Kimmerer
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Campos Elíseos 76
Mexico City, MX 11560, Mexico