Dulce Herbario, discover your inner forest
“Plants and feelings must be cut with loving scissors so that they remain whole. Fungi and lichens are collected with utmost care, for they are like feelings that can easily break. We proceed to dry them gently within poems of glass.
A little warmth and moisture make seeds sprout into grass, tree or flower, just as in this Dulce Herbario, a book-emotion that gathers the vegetal with the tools of memory and transforms it into poetry…”
THE AUTHORS AND THE BOOK
Mónica Gutiérrez Serna holds a PhD in Fine Arts, specialising in Painting. Her work has been exhibited many times and has received major Illustration Awards. She has illustrated numerous books, including Dulce Herbario, where we can enjoy her art at its finest.
The texts are by Juan Kruz Igerabide, a writer and researcher specialising in children’s literature, particularly poetry.
A TRIBUTE TO DULCE MARÍA LOYNAZ
To understand the beauty of this herbarium, we must first speak briefly about Dulce María Loynaz.
Born in Havana in 1902, Dulce María became one of the leading figures of Cuban literature, eventually receiving the Cervantes Prize.
In her youth, she is said to have created a herbarium that was never published. This book pays tribute to those plants (surely quite different from those appearing here, as they belong to other climates and cultures), all under the light of poetry.
POETRY AND PLANTS
“Perfume alone is not the flower:
The flower is also the stem, the petal, the leaf, and above all, the love for the flower.”
Could poetry exist without flora, or flora without poetry? These two have always been intertwined since ancient times, as was the case with Emily Dickinson, who, despite rarely leaving her estate, was a passionate herbalist.
WHAT MAKES THIS HERBARIUM SO “SWEET”?
Beyond learning about the characteristics, properties and curiosities of a wonderful selection of plants, immersing yourself in its pages will help you discover your own personal herbarium what moves you, which scents, textures and colours of your surroundings make you feel balanced. This awareness will also be valuable when choosing our organic cosmetics. There are many kinds of plants, and each one awakens different feelings and sensations in us: love, courage, creativity, calm...
Let yourself be surprised by the forest formed by the flora of this book, and by the one that grows within you.
“I close the herbarium.
I sniff it.
The spirits of the plants enter through my nose.
I sneeze.
Seeds of dreams take flight to conquer imagination.”
