REFLECTIONS on SENTIENCE
Cohort Testimonials
Let It Be 'Through the Birch Leaf'
By Mykyta Peregrym
When I began working with the birch leaf last year, I did not think of it as an object or even as a symbol. It was a quiet presence, something that seemed to call for attention rather than explanation. Holding it, I felt as if the membrane between the present and the past had thinned. The leaf was no longer a fragment of a plant; it was like a messenger. Through its subtle veins and translucent surface, I could sense a kind of responsiveness, as if the forest itself was willing to share a memory.
When I engaged with the birch leaf during my recent work, I began to think that memory itself might not belong to the human mind alone, but might also dwell in the living world, carried by leaves, roots, and soil. This experience changed my understanding of what it means to “know” a forest. It is not an intellectual act, nor purely sensory. It is a form of correspondence, a slow exchange of awareness. Now I am thinking about writing a series of essays where I could explore the connections between other species, even whole plant communities, and human memory. These beings could serve as portals, helping us return to the past, to relive significant experiences, and to bring forth something essential, something we need now, or will need in the future.
Coming back to my work with the birch leaf, I should say that the process became a true conversation, one that changed my relationship with plants and forests. Now, when I photograph, observe, and listen, it is no longer documentation, it is participation. The forest, through the leaf, invites me into a state of attention where the boundaries between observation and emotion dissolve.
This communication opened doors to memory in an unexpected way. Childhood moments returned, soft and fragmented, like filtered light through the canopy. Through this dialogue, I began to perceive my own memories as part of a larger ecological mind, a continuity of awareness extending beyond the self.
Working with the birch leaf thus became an act of remembering, of bringing the scattered fragments of time, place, and perception into quiet alignment. The forest spoke not in words, but in gestures of presence: the shimmer of light through leaves, the scent of wet bark, the texture of air. What I experienced was not simply remembrance but reciprocity, a sense that my memories, too, nourish the forest, just as its leaves nourish my thought.
In that exchange, I glimpsed what I would call forest sentience: not consciousness as possession, but as communion. The birch became, in a way, a psychologist for me, one who listens without judgment, who absorbs and reflects, who helps to restore energy and inner balance. Its silence was not emptiness but attention, a kind of deep empathy that only the living world can offer.
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To read Mykyta's essay 'A Birch Memory Web' in the journal Plant Perspectives, click here.
All images on this page are copyright of the artist Mykyta Peregrym.
Top: 'Finnish Lapland near Äkäslompolo Village' (2024). Digital image.
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Bottom: 'Birches Near the Author's Rented Apartment in Oulu During Winter' (2023). Digital image.
