00:00What is home?
00:05There's a proverb that says the family is like the forest.
00:08If you are outside, it is dense.
00:11If you are inside, you see that each tree has its own position.
00:15That's how I've come to understand my family.
00:17When I think of home, I think of them.
00:20My Jamaican immigrant mother is one of 15 children.
00:23She is the last daughter of my grandparents, and I am their 41st grandchild.
00:27The one and only granddaughter born in the U.S.
00:30A Yankee, as they call me.
00:34The concept of home has honestly been something I've had trouble fully understanding.
00:39As a first-generation Caribbean American, not belonging became an uncomfortable norm.
00:43This time of isolation has been a time of healing.
00:46I'm finding home and reconnecting with my elders, going to the roots of our forest,
00:51through my conversations with my mother and two of her sisters.
00:55Hello.
00:56Hello.
00:57Hi, hot stuff.
00:59Hi, honey.
01:00I'm a baby.
01:01I'm a former baby.
01:03Oh, you're so sweet.
01:05When you were living here in America, did you consider New York your home?
01:09No.
01:09I wouldn't say no one second over there.
01:12My man was second over there.
01:14Coming home now, you see you're in your own birth land, you know.
01:19And your family is here.
01:22Even your family is here, too.
01:23When your family is here, you know, you just feel free.
01:28I think I would move back, although we have crime everywhere.
01:34But I'm a Jamaican.
01:38To be honest, I'm a Jamaican.
01:40My father loved land.
01:43He grew in Jamaica just crazy about land.
01:46Most people inherit their land, especially in the country areas.
01:51Most people would do farming.
01:53Remember they had a thyme and scallion garden?
01:57That I remember.
01:57Oh, yeah.
01:58And the area, and I've been in it, they did more of the, especially on the area, of the
02:04farming than what I did.
02:05How's your garden doing?
02:08It's not good at all.
02:09It's not good.
02:10It's not good at all.
02:12The things are not coming out properly because you're going to get the right soil.
02:18And I was praying, Lord, to make the church a girl.
02:20Oh!
02:21Oh!
02:22What is home?
02:23The answer seems to lie under the dirt.
02:26You see, I come from generations of farmers, from Scotland to St. Elizabeth, Jamaica.
02:30But growing up in the concrete jungle of New York, this city girl ain't ever even held
02:35a shovel in her life.
02:36Is there a song Papa would sing when he would be in the garden?
02:38Maybe, um...
02:40I carry me, I carry all in, stay the market, not that what he would sell.
02:46Carry me, I carry all in, stay the market, not that what he would sell.
02:51It's good night, my darling.
02:52I'm going to get some sleep.
02:54Poor Eden.
02:56Look, I'm working too much.
02:58You look tired already.
02:59Please.
03:00You've got a lot there to plant.
03:02Hard work.
03:03Never mind.
03:04Good for the soul.
03:05And I wish you all the luck.
03:08Tomorrow, I shall see these lovely plants from you.
03:11Okay, darling?
03:12If you have a house, get it wet a bit and you'll get it easier to work on.
03:18I'm here for you morning, noon, or night about the plants.
03:22Don't be afraid.
03:23Okay, sweetie.
03:24Love you.
03:24You're looking good.
03:25Just like the plants.
03:26It's so cute too.
03:27You look so great.
03:28It's like you're farming.
03:31Yeah.
03:32So what is home?
03:33It's right here, in me and these women's shared laughter and scattered among the generations
03:38of trees that will fill this forest long after I'm gone.
03:42Life is going to start the last night.
03:45No, not a mile.
03:47Bye-bye.
03:48Bye-bye.
03:50You're done.
03:51Hang on.
03:53Hang on.
03:54One, two, three.
03:56One, two, three.
03:59Boom.
04:01You're too much.
04:04All right, I'm going to go now.
04:05One, two, three.
04:12One, two, three.
04:34One, two, three.
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