When I was in America, at least once or twice a year I would visit my grandparents on their rural little farm in the middle of nowhere Arkansas. I always felt like I had so much fun there, even with the occasional splinters *w* When my grandfather passed away in junior high, it was the first funeral I had been to, and it was heartbreaking despite barely knowing who my grandfather really was.

My first semester working in Japan, my grandmother passed away, and I had the largest mental breakdown I have had in recent memory, causing all sorts of mental illness to hit me harder than ever before. Not being able to visit my family during the incident and still adjusting to a new country was a gigantic obstacle I had to overcome, and after recently hearing that the same rural house they lived in was recently ransacked by robbers, I feel like there's a hole in my heart from what used to be such a fun place. Though as a young child I would balk at the manure, the mud, and the lack of general cleanliness of the place, looking back it was just a different world where I had my most American roots still planted.

I am very fond of nature, coming from living in the forest most of my life, and I love being outside when it's nice. I'm currently trying to keep 4 pepper plants from dying in the Japanese winter, having raised them since last spring during our first lockdown, and I thought a piece highlighting my interest in growing plants can shed some personal light on this here dragon, and why green is my favorite color :3

Piece completed by the lovely  LumiNofor