Cabinet of Mango and Palm Leaves

I was in between stages of my life, landed back in La República Dominicana and feeling dead inside. I had left a community that felt abusive, where my non-binary existence was treated like a flaw of my own design instead of being celebrated. I was ridiculed for not following 'feminine-led' principles that were supposedly meant to run through my system.

The more I lived in Las Terrenas, the more the land reminded me what 'feminine' actually was. It wasn’t even about ‘feminine’ as much as it was claiming my roots back in this non-binary, non-dual way of existence. I didn’t have the words then, but I needed to co-create with my environment to process what was shifting inside me—something I could get my hands on that would hold me up, not through anger, but through the creative energy that has always led me. I took an old wooden cabinet left in the apartment and transformed it; something primal took over as I absorbed the nature around me for two years.

A year later, the echoes of that home and those relationships have shattered. I now understand that each new iteration is less about the pain and more about the power of the boundary I’ve built. The new standard is no longer just surviving the pieces—it’s knowing that my existence is an invitation, not an explanation. The path is finally clear.