The Image Book of Nomad Papaya

In 2018, I bumped into a papaya tree on the street  in Taipei. Its unique shape drew my attention: “What is this tree doing here?” It was standing straight up, growing higher over the fences, and the sun was passing through the buildings and penetrating the leaves. The green and yellow color of the leaves looked inexplicably energetic in the shimmering light. Suddenly I noticed that there are a lot of papaya trees near my neighbors, most of them grow alone in the middle of buildings or by the roadsides.They don’t have much agricultural value, but they appear in all corners of cities as a very natural, normal existence. I started to look for the traces of these papaya trees and their history by researching historical archives, taking photos, sketching and drawing, I started to realize the papaya trees had it’s own stories, deeply rooted in the colonized past. Looking at these papaya trees being a nomad in the city, I feel somehow accompanied when I get lost in identity questions. This book represents my perception of the place I call home.

Traditional Chinese, English