The plant I chose for my sculpture is Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, commonly known as ZZ. It is a stemless evergreen plant with compound leaves rising up from its rhizomes. It is native to dry grassland and forests in East Africa. I chose this for a Ye because she is independent and has been living on her own at the dorms since high school. Since it comes from a dry climate, it can also go for 3 to 4 months without being watered. ZZ performs well in a variety of shaded conditions varying from morning sun to afternoon shade or brighter indirect sunlight. This plant survives drought due to its large potato like rhizomes that store water. According to me, Ye’s independence is similar to ZZ’s.
The ZZ plant needs well draining soil to grow. That reminds me of how Ye is connected to her cultural background. She is an introvert and and this is an indoor plant. Ye also stated in her interview that she doesn’t like traveling a lot, which is why I picked an indoor plant to represent her. However, with whatever interaction I have had with Ye in the past 5 weeks, she has been very warm and unreserved, always willing to help. ZZ is also used in medicines to help people and cure them of illnesses such as ‘mshipa’ and ‘earache’.
I would like to use a glass jar or a container for my sculpture and put coins in it, bellow the plant. Upon being asked to tell which personality trait she picked up from her culture, she told me something very intriguing. People in China usually save a large sum of their monthly incomes. Ye does the same as she saves money for the future. I am using a glass container and putting coins at the base, bellow the roots of the plant, representing her cultural background and how she connects to it. Despite knowing the fact that she is an introvert, I chose an opaque glass container because I don’t sense any fakeness around her and she’s really straight forward in my opinion.
