Along the trail, exposed roots emerge like veins beneath the earth's skin. Each one was traced with turmeric, a substance of healing, protection, and ritual. The gesture is both subtle and luminous: a golden balm offered to the roots, as though the earth itself were being tended and remembered. In this work, the root is more than a plant structure; it carries the tensions of belonging. Roots often bind us to what is inherited — family, culture, land, or destiny. Yet as they cross and diverge, they show that belonging is not fixed. It is both given and chosen, carried within us and redrawn through the paths we decide to
follow. By marking the forest floor with turmeric, the work maps an inner journey: the lifelines that connect us to the ground, to memory, and to choice. Chosen Roots: Mapping Belonging suggests that belonging is alive — a constellation of inherited
ties and chosen directions, constantly renewed through care, healing, and the act of walking our own path.