Yui with a Redwood tree
London, England
One of my favourite trees is the old Japanese horse chestnut tree from the mountain where I spent most of my childhood. I often skipped school and the mountains and trees were my real teachers. Thinking about that forest takes me back to the pure happiness I felt as a child.
I reconnected to that pure feeling and sense of belonging when I journeyed to the Amazon rainforest to learn from trees and plant medicines. Under the starry galaxy the plants showed me the world through a thousand eyes, the eyes of trees.
I was a tree, but I was also a tiny seed, being embraced by the rainforest and all her creatures. That natural state was the mirror of heaven.
Love is All. All is Love. They said to me.
Not the love that we often hear off in love songs.
Instead, unconditional love, that burns and cleanses everything except the heart.
I fell in love so deeply with the world by seeing it through the eyes of trees.
I remembered that every breath is a gift of Love. Like the first breath I took when I was born into this world, before I could see.
Light, Water, Wind, Soil and Tears. Being embraced by warm darkness, by soil that nurtures and cleanses.
That mysterious darkness where all begins and ends, and is reborn. My heart is fire burning, bursting with joy.
Life, a miracle being sustained by a great harmony and the love between us.
My life is ephemeral, fragile, powerful.
Trees reawakened this ancient memory in me, reuniting me with my real Self.
Inviting me to really live this one brief, precious and mysterious life.
My mind tricks me and says I know.
But in truth, I know nothing.
Each meeting is new, a discovery, an inspired realisation.
This is why I will be forever learning from trees.
I am in them. They are in me, inseparable. Because we are nature. Nature is us. There is no end to our relationship.
Trees were here long before humanity. They are incredibly ancient and mysterious beings. Standing in silence, they are the keepers of the Earth’s song. Caretakers of harmony, timeless wisdom, protectors of life. True strength, gentleness and compassion emanates from their beingness.
They show us the courage to break open one’s own seed, to grow and dive into the unknown, into the darkness and light.
– Yui Hamagashira
A B O U T Y U IYui Hamagashira is an artist, visual storyteller, film maker, kundalini yoga practitioner and an Earth protector. She is currently working on a film about the Ainu people indigenous to the northern islands of Japan. Her love for trees started in her early childhood in the mountains close to Kyoto, Japan.
Yui is standing with a California Coastal Redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens). Redwoods are among the most ancient and tallest trees on Earth. Majestic and evergreen, they have inspired human beings since time immemorial.
“Trees were here long before humanity. They are incredibly ancient and mysterious beings. Standing in silence, they are the keepers of the Earth’s song.”
– Yui Hamagashira
Photography by Liv Milani
