The slow breath and the herbs from the mountain

I am Moon. I ask you to listen to my voice, because I want to teach you that you can breathe and walk slowly. I am a movement, but I am also a plant that heals. I am a weed that hands, both beautiful and expert, have planted and cared for in magical places. I, Moon, want to tell you that many years ago I learned to listen to the murmur of the plants, that as my time and yours have passed the whisper in my ear has taken on clearer forms; it’s showing me new routes that I want to share with you.

I, Moon, want to tell you that during many nights I have walked with the plants, accompanying their journey: I have seen them emerge slowly from the soil and I have watched how, little by little, they have grown looking for water, air and sun. On them —and with them— our peoples have relied to heal and to be fed. I want to tell you that I have traveled with them and I can tell you that they learned to live in the places where they have arrived. Now they speak to our old witches, wise healers and midwives. They are the remedy for pain relief.

I, Moon, want to tell you that in my walk through the forests of Oaxaca, looking for remedies and listening to the voice of the plants, I found, among other magical herbs, Tulsi, with whom I spoke. She taught me new scents and magical paths. In my silence, in those mountains where we were introduced, I understood new things and learned to breathe slowly. This is what I want to show you.

Me, Moon, she, Tulsi, we both want to teach you how to breathe slowly. Along the way we met Khadi and the cotton, another wandering plant that has traveled the world since it left the Mayan lands of the Yucatan peninsula many years ago. Together we will walk and we will breathe slowly. Now I, Tulsi, will be under the protection of a cotton blanket until I am in your hands and you take care of me as I want to do with you.

Process

Last year, Sharon Drijanski, the mastermind behind Loona, and María Violante, creator of Remedios del Bosque, a Mexican brand specialized in organic beauty products, met at a retreat in the Sierra de Oaxaca. “It was like love at first sight”, María recalls in an interview, “we shared many ideas and similar points of view about nature and the planet”.

It was only natural that Loona’s new collaboration would emerge from this understanding. In March, María began to think about the way in which she would bring “Roots” to life. She decided to start with tulsi, a kind of basil known in India as “holy basil” for its anxiolytic, relaxing, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. With it she created a myst and an essential oil. “They are very flexible products, people of all ages can use them,” says Maria about her choice of products.

The tulsi then encountered the energizing, relaxing and aromatic properties of lemon grass. Everything, done with the touch of the brand: “We sow them on Oaxaca’s Costa Chica, following the principles of regenerative agriculture, which tries to replicate the variety of soils in cloud forests or jungles, which are those that provide greater biodiversity to the ground ”, she says. In addition, tulsi and lemon grass have been planted at times when the Moon favors their development and they take four months to be harvested. Subsequently, this raw material is distilled in the firm’s workshop in Mexico City and ready to be enjoyed by its next owners.

Only 35 lucky people will be able to enjoy the benefits and properties of these products, which promote relaxation and can be used on the face, as a tonic, as well as on sheets, on yoga mats or sprayed in the environment at any time of the day to promote a harmonious atmosphere.

For “Roots”, María also created an incense made with plants that in Mexican tradition are known to help purification: sage, known to protect and clean; pericón, used by healers when doing energy cleansing; pine, used in protective rituals; and lavender, which provides aromatic and relaxing properties to the mix.

For this project, María also invited Khadi Oaxaca, an initiative that works with more than 400 Zapotec families to create products made from sustainable materials, yarns and woven by hand, and naturally dyed. In “Roots”. Khadi Oaxaca developed the packaging in which the products are presented: bags made with fabrics in neutral tones created by hand by these communities using cotton fibers. In addition, each bag bears the “Remedios del Bosque x Loona” label printed in silkscreen and with a hand-frayed thread by artisan communities in southern Oaxaca. There is another peculiarity of these packages, which Mariano Santana, project coordinator from Remedios del Bosque explains: “The bag is based on the golden ratio; when folded you will have a perfect rectangle. ” Each of the 35 editions of this collaboration will also be accompanied by three postcards with images captured by renowned Mexican photographer Karla Lisker.

But that’s not all. “Roots”, Loona’s Collaboration Five, also marks the beginning of a new initiative within the Loona program: retreats and expeditions to nature. For this first occasion, it will be María Violante herself who for a weekend will guide a program of activities focused on nature and herbalism that will be carried out in the Sierra de Oaxaca. “Whenever I do a retreat like this, I realize how much it moves people: they leave happy because they connected with nature and with themselves, and also because they say other ways of life: simpler and more authentic,” says María when asked about the experience. For her part, Sharon Drijanski sees this retreat as the beginning of something else: “With Loona I want to plant a seed of conscience. This is the planting of a little seed that invites us to be around nature, to get acquainted with María’s work and also to be inspired.”