The 28th Leaf: Florent from Francoville in France

One year ago just after Xmas Florent and I were dragging a Xmas tree abandoned in Argyle Street, in Glasgow, all the way to Florent's flat.
I really wanted a xmas tree and Florent helped me in my weird plan. I think it was the 28th or something like that. The flat started smelling amazingly...fresh pinetree! of course twas quite difficult to find balls and all that sort of stuff that usually people put on such trees as xmas was already gone and people were "marketingly" thinking in terms of new year's eve.
But we made it and in one afternoon we tree was done and beautiful.
And this is Florent's autumn in a winter night




It's a leaf from Champs Elyseés, a memory of "Autumn's Leaves" a jazz song that Florent used to play with his dad.

The 27th Leaf, James from California

The train was full of people and really smelly. It was hot, and it was May I think, or end of April, on a train in India, when and where I met James. He made me smile and talked to me for the whole journey till Nepal. He offered me food, music and good feelings.
India is strange. It's so big but you keep meeting the same people everywhere you go or anyway you know that sooner or later you will bump into someone you like or you don't like again.
Well, after months I met James again, in Delhi this time. He was at the end of his adventure, while I was at the beginning of a new one, this time really on my own. He was going back home and I was going to the Himachal Pradesh and then Kinnaur and Spiti.
We had the weirdest dinner ever, in a mexican restaurant in new delhi with indians dressed up with weird clothes, american music in the background and loads of beer.
That was definetely a fun night. We haven't seen since then. But now I can see his autumn





just one last thing. Life is really really really strange. And Random I have to say. I was publishin this post and the radio (in Japan) started to play an indian song "Mundian to Bach Ke Punjabi". Synchronicities....

The 26th Leaf: Thommy from Edinburgh

I don't exactly remember the very first moment I saw Thommy, but I remember it was in Gagie at the castle where I was WWOOFing in summer 2006.
It's so amazing that it's been already more than 3 years since Scotland became a sort of second home for me and I danced with Thommy in a club in Dundee.
Thommy is my scottish mum's daughter. Aye, I have a scottish mum of course. She looked after me and taught me many things while I was working for her in the castle. While her daughters looked after me in Edinburgh where I spent I think the hottest summer Scotland ever had in ages. I went back the following year thinking it would be pretty the same...and indeed I was wrong.... Thommy is an amazing cook and a really sweet person. When I think of her the first things coming up are golden curly hair, honest smile, the color blue and pheasants.

these are her leaves from the Meadows

The 25th Leaf: from Lucy and John, Glasgow

Autumn is over I think, just a few red leaves are still on the naked trees here in Japan. It's winter, hey! but still leaves keep coming to me. And memories too.

The last leaf is from Lucy and John, two of my students from the italian class I held last winter in Glasgow. I've never had such a great class. I loved the nice evenings in May and June spent drinking together before class in the beer garden next to the school or the big laugh we had all the time.
And I can't believe it: they ask me to come back and teach again. Thank you Lucy and John!
I'm looking forward to it!

The 24th Leaf: From a friend of a friend...

A friend of mine talked about my project to a girl in his same course and she wanted to take part in it too. So she sent me a leaf from Cambridge University which "she wanted to visit for many years".



A wee story and a wee leaf from someone I don't even know. This is the perfect gift indeed!

The 23rd Leaf: Fabio, Milano

I was drawing, I think, when Fabio came into the room to see what we were doing.
I was doing a kind of art evening class in Milan with a small bunch of people I never saw in all my life.
I think it was winter. I'm not sure. But I remember that it was cold on the bike.

I don't know very much about Fabio because I left quite soon after we met and we haven't seen for so long.

And for sure he does not know much about me either.

But with his leaves from the vineyard he's used to go to since he was little he gave me a part of his memories and a chance to get to know him a wee bit more.

The 22nd Leaf: Lenka, Glasgow

I don't remember if it was raining when I met Lenka, because it happened when we were both under a roof (in the flat we would have shared for one year), and not in the street where I usually meet the most interesting people ever.

Nonetheless Lenka prooved to be something even more than interesting: a real friend, I'd even say a sister.

We spent so many hours talking...or maybe me talking 80% her listening 80% (the remaining 20% for me is listening while eating; the remaining20% for her is talking while cooking)...she cuddled me, made my hair, baked a cake for my birthday, laughed at all my stupid stories and even did proofreading for my homeworks.

She sent me the most amazing letter ever that I can't show on internet as I dont want to be banned by the chinese servers, with a beautiful leaf. It looks like a heart and it's got my name on it!

The 21st Leaf: Dylan, form Australia

Dylan is a beautiful gift that Nepal gave me.
I met him in a nice garden at the back of a guest house in Kathmandu more than one year ago by now.
We kept meeting each other in so many places and after long periods of time. Even in delhi we managed to meet by chance.
He's been an amazing friend and even took my big italian ass up and down the himalayan mountains on his motorbike. Poor thing: "she" almost died!
We flew over the top of amazing mountains that I would have never ever imagined they could exist, and we touched the soft sand of the white desert in Nubra Valley, cooked weird vegetables in a wee pot that we brought with us and look at the most incredible and shining stars I've ever seen.



He is back in Australia now. He sent me many leaves wrapped in a smiling yellow tissue paper together with a drawing and a letter. One of the leaves is from a magnolia tree. I love this kind of tree, its leaves, its flowers and the smell they have.

The 20th leaf: Luca, from Glasgow

I was outside the school where i used to teach italian in Glasgow, talking with one of my students, when this guy with a hoodie asked us some help. He was looking for a flat and I was really late for a dinner party.
Of course we didnt know where that street he was asking about was and of course (again) it started raining cats and dogs.
Of course, I say, because nobody never knows directions when they are asked and because in Scotland there are 2 seasons: winter and July and in Glasgow it always, or almost always, rains.

He was italian too.
Not so strange though, as italians are everywhere.

He changed my life, a lot.

I don't know why but I keep meeting important people on the streets of glasgow.

His leaf is the first one he found on the streets when I asked him a leaf. He is a very cheeky guy, I have to say.



the leaf in the leaf....

19th Leaf: Anonymous from Milan

The other day I got these 2 leaves from the post office in Milano Borromeo.

I dont know who sent me the letter.

Anonymous leaves.

The 18th Leaf: Fabio

I met Fabio on the plane to Milan.

I was bored and sad and I wanted to talk with someone. I'm a very talkative person. Unfortunaley or luckily? I still don't know, I guess it depends on many things...

Anyway, I started talking with him, while I was going back to Italy. I did really need to talk with someon and he cheered me up.

We met again.

In Glasgow this time.

We spent one night talking till dawn. He bought me oranges. I was so ill that night. I came back home at 6 am I think. I don't remember.

on that night I recorded a bird singing because decepted by the artificial light of the city.

I remember. Do you remember?
That night was so surreal, many sounds, many words, many thoughts. Incredible how much you can share with someone you met only once.

his leaf is from a street in Genove. Both its sides are made by trees that are now changing their colors. This is his autumn.
I have to see this street, and his Genova

The 17th Leaf: German

I was in Ladakh when I met German. Well, WE were in Ladakh when WE met.

A meeting is not something that happened to ONE person.

People meet because they share a place and a moment. By chance maybe. Sometimes on purpose.
It was by chance between me and German. A friend of mine met him earlier in Nepal and then by chance we happened to be the three of us in the same place in the same moment. This is German, please to meet you, Silvia.

One night we met again, this time because we planned it and he showed us the pictures he took in his travelling. We were sitting in the garden of a nice and peaceful guesthouse in Leh. We ended up talking about many things and sharing experiences and impressions of memories of India.

And we are still doing that.

Actually he is chatting with me now.

He sent me beautiful leaves from Switzerland where he is living at the moment. But not only that. Also warm words and pictures of the amazing land where we met. His prints are so delicate and rich of dreams.

The 16th Leaf: Fabio

I met Fabio in a funny way. Well, actually all the most interesting people I met in my life are the ones I met in a wierd way. A very random way!

Many of my best friends are people I met on the street.

Or on the plane

Or in strange ways...as it happened with Fabio.
I was living in Edinburgh and it was really hard time for me. Many things went wrong and I didn't have enough money to live there. So I looked for different jobs. But my english wasn't good enough and being an immigrant in general is not an easy thing job-wise. Eventually I managed to find a job in a night club in the city center. I was doing anything: preparing cocktail, pouring beer (very badly hey!), cleaning, glass collecting and so on. One night some guys came to the bar and in one second I recognized the italian accent. We talked a bit and then they went away.

after a few weeks I was checking Gumtree to see if I could find free shiatsu massage somewhere as my back was so sore.

I was looking for someone I could trust and I bumped into a message from a guy whose name sounded kinda italian. I thought I could talk with him easier than with a scottish guy. I wrote to him, we took an appointment, I went to his house, knocked at the door, looked at this "?" person and !!! we met before! where? ah yes, in the club, ah yes you were in that group of guys, no! you do shiatsu? yes i like it ...

well i talked so much that night that at the end we ended up having dinner together and becoming friends.
He cooked for me amazing things,he helped me many times, we spent very nice evenings together.

A good friend indeed.

The last time we had the best pizza ever in Edinburgh.

Shiatsu next time (?)

His leaf is from the Meadows, a nice park in Edinburgh. I spend very nice evenings and days there.

The 15th Leaf: Beba

I've known Beba since I was in my mum's womb.

When I was little I used to spend the whole summer in her house in Sardinia, an island in the south of Italy.

...I remember the white sand of the dunes along the blue sea, and the juicy peach that my mum would give me as a snack in the afternoon but I wanted the panini with salami and instead I had that peach, now I would like to eat a peach actually, and then the peach would attract all the wosps nearby and then its juice would drip down my chin and neck and then become sticky and then yes yes let's go to the sea, let's swim a bit more before the sun goes down and the sand gets cold again and all the heat goes into the light blue water with grey fishes and many many seashells, that every year I collected and ever year forgetting them somewhere before going back to Milan, to school, to another autumn and winter...

Beba is part of my childhood, and part of my best memories.



And now she is also part of my present and I am part of her thoughts. For a moment. A moment for picking up a leaf for me, and send it all the way to Japan.

The 14th Leaf: Sarah

In 2006 I decided I should learn english and went to Scotland for that...

I wanted to apply for a Psychotherapy school in Milan that requires the knowledge of English as in third year some people from abroad would come and teach.

So, I went to Dundee and worked in a farm for a few months.



I learnt Scottish.
I buried sheep.
I planted snowdrops.
I fell in love.
I cried.
I went to yoga class.
I got drunk in the park with Lambrini and Buckfast.
I pierced my ears.
I travelled around.
I saw deers.
I went to the Ocean.

And i decided I would go back and live there.

So, that's where I live now, well apart from this break in Japan.

It was in this crazy scottish summer, the best in ages, when it rained only 3 days in total or something like that, that I met Sarah. She was working with me. She watched Italy winning the World Cup with me. And she danced with me in the garden and baked amazing cakes and bread for everybody.

Now she is in China, in a place called the Eternal Spring. Well, she said it's kinda difficult to find an autumnla leaf there. But as autumn means "chestnuts, persimmons, roasted squash and the smell of wood fired ovens" she managed to find a leaf of chestnut and a bamboo leaf too as "together they paint the city with autumn spirit".

I like that.

The 13th Leaf: Roman

It was almost Summer when I met Roman in Kalpa.
He was sitting at the terrazza, making Mala for his friends and looking at the beautiful mountains of Kinnaur.



We were in Himachal Pradesh. He was at the end of his journey and I was right in the middle of mine, ready to go to Spiti and then Ladakh. I didn't know Roman, but we felt like we had known each other for long time and then ended up getting drunk together in a local inn drinking the kinnaur plum wine...yes I think it was plum wine.
It's so interesting that in many places in Asia alcohol is made by plums and fruit like apricots while I've always been used to drink stuff made with grape, I mean wine. In Japan too, they use plum. In fact Umeshu (alcol made with plums) is very popular here.

So, going back to Roman, he left soon and I left too. He went back to Israel where he lives now and I went on with my travelling.

We haven't seen since then

But now I have one leaf from his autumn: a FIG LEAF.

The 12th Leaf: Izumi

Izumi is a Japanese artist who fell in love with Italy so much that she decided to love an italian man as well and have EVEN babies with him.

And I can understand why... Italy, well, Italy is my Country, I love it. Great food, great weather, great cities. No job though. And bad bad politics. And I would add too much selfishness.
But what to do: nothing is perfect! and imperfection can (I repeat it: CAN) lead to perfection. While perfection is just stasis, death. Isn't it?

I met Izumi long long long time ago in Piacenza at a party. I loved her from the first second. And from the first second I knew she would stay in Italy for long time.

Now she is expecting a baby, Nami, which means Wave in Japanese. I saw her belly a couple of weeks ago and it's growing fast!
I wish you the best, Izumi.

The 11th Leaf: Angus

Angus was one of my students of the italian language class in Glasgow this year.
He loves languages and he gave me really hard times as he was speaking French instead of Italian all the time!!! (I'm joking Angus!).

I was so happy to receive his leaf and his lovely letter about his new life in England.

He also sent me a postcard with a picture of the church he sees from his window

He sent me the letter the day he started the italian class in Yorkshire and the leaf he chose for me is from the outdoor sculpture trail of the Burton Agnes Hall. He thought that a leaf from an art gallery "would be very appropriate" for my project.

And it is indeed, Angus.

I love how eveybody sent me not just a leaf but a "little piece" of their "story" and life. Well, life is a story that we tell to ourselves and to everybody, I think.

this is the leaf:

The 10th Leaf: Alexandra

I met Alexandra so long ago by now. And it's funny because we physically met a few times while I feel like I spent with her so much time, actually doing things together.

This is one of the situations in which I realize how internet is an actual "place". So untouchable and so real at the same time. A place where you can keep watering the plant of friendship if you want to.
Strange, wierd, odd maybe. But that's the way it is. At least for me.

So, me and Alex keep meeting on internet and miss each other in the "real" (is it more real, then????) world. In India, in France, in Italy. Everywhere. But Skype or Gmail are the place where we still manage to meet. A place-no-place, with its own time-no-time.

With my project I'm exploring a different connection. A connection where place and time are place-here and place-there, time-here and time-there. Actual place and actual time of/for waiting-expecting-thinking of the Other.

Alexandra is an artist based in France. This is the LINK to some of her work.

Grazie Alex!

The 9th Leaf: Elisa

Elisa was my classmate at high school.

She used to sit at the desk in front of me. Last row me and Marco, of course. In front of us Elisa and Anna.
Old times. I miss them sometimes.
I loved high school a lot, but already talked about it in the third leaf post I think.

So, Elisa's autumn leaf is the invitation to her wedding. I'm not gonna be there. I'm missing all my friends' important moments and that's quite sad.

I missed weddings, babies, graduations, the first house....so many things.

I miss my friends