I see you in every landscape…
- Camila Rocha
- 21 Tem
- 7 dakikada okunur
Published monthly on unlimitedrag.com, Terrestrial Tales seeks the stories of not only the hunters, emperors and battles, but the gatherers, the seeds, the birds, the ways of water…. In the series’ first piece, Camila Rocha lends her voice to Actinocephalus, one of Brazil’s rare and endemic plants
Text: Camila Rocha
Camila Rocha, From Earth’s surface series, Várzea de São Gonçalo, 2025
Terrestrial Tales is a series of traveling workshops that bring together different groups of individuals to collect narratives from the evolving conditions of a terrain. The approach aims to respond to the urgency of telling stories today, amidst political and environmental turmoil caused by past and present structures of power. Each chapter of the series is set in a different location, either urban or rural, and at the end of every gathering, the collected geographic stories—expressed through maps, drawings, writings, and other works—are compiled into a publication that is gradually building towards a broader anthology. Following paths of geographical movement the workshops began in Şirince, Turkey now moving towards Athens, Greece. As a new monthly publication on the online platform of Art Unlimited, Terrestrial Tales every month will invite a creative to contribute to the growing collection of stories.
I was born where there are many high rocks rising like walls from the land and the soil is rocky. I can’t exactly recall my near ancestors -probably some crawling specimens that existed before me- and I eventually became who I am defined as today. Some biologists say that I came from the high altitudes of the Andean mountains and strode my way down to this part of the planet, passing through evolution and conquering the territory of my species. I don’t really have a memory of any of that, but I like to believe that it’s true.
Wait! I actually know about my very first ancestors, the Fern, what we call between us “the survivor”.
Her story is amazing, 450 million years ago she managed to walk from the water to the land, as it used to rain so much, and days and days would pass by without the drops of water ceasing falling from the sky. Like that, she created roots and a vascular system just as most of us living beings did, and managed to stand by herself on a solid soil for the first time on our planet.
Can you imagine her force? Her courage? To outdare gravity, to risk her existence just to try something new, something else? She needed more and went for it. Can you believe that she still exists after fireballs dropped from the sky, devastating plagues, huge mouths trying to eat each part of her, or almost being frozen to death? She survived, found a very special way to reproduce herself through micro golden dots spreading with the wind. So our kingdom evolved, and I became who I am today.
Unfortunately, her kind does not live anywhere near me.
My kind reigns all alone. I’m found in Campos Rupestres of Brazil, an area that occupies less than 1% of the country’s territory. More exactly, I’m growing in this corner they named floodplain or Varzea de São Gonçalo. I’m endemic to this very place, meaning I cannot exist anywhere else apart from where I am today. Characteristics of the soil and the minerals it contains where I stand made me who I am, but also made me not able to move or successfully reproduce anywhere else on the surface of the Earth.
Let me try to describe to you my surroundings, before I describe myself.
If you dare to come to this site, you immediately notice that the landscape changes. All plants suddenly become creeping, they are very short and spread very near the soil. They often suffer from animals stepping on them but some of them like that, a BDSM of sorts, trampling, it’s defined so.
You must surmount rocks, jump over water springs that gush out from the depths of the earth, step on mud and on sand that unleashed themselves from the wall of the surrounding rocks that million years before they were part of.
Then, all of a sudden you may find me, standing all alone.
I do have a family growing and reproducing nearby, mothers and sisters concentrated, living all together in community, but I choose to live alone and observe everything that happens around me. Like that I have more free landscape just for myself to appreciate, more horizon.
How did I end up here? Well, probably my mother in her energy and copulation mood was generating her flowers, which were the homes of thousands of pollen for the coleopterous to have an orgy within. Coleous means case and Ptera means wing. This group of naughty beings hide a pair of wings inside a second pair of wings that keratinized. That’s why they have that natural iridescent glow and shining shell. I actually find them very chic and envy that a little to be honest.
So, one of them pollinated one of those flowers, which became a little kind of brittle fruit that was carried away, goddesses know how, and brought me far away from the rest of my family.
That’s ok, I’m at peace with that, as I said before, I have more free space to stand alone gloriously by myself, so whoever comes all the way down here sees me first, as a semblance of heaven.
I have a stem with short branches; I don’t have a rhizome. My leaves are spiralled and persistent; my orientation is extremely erect; the form of the blade is lanceolate, starting wide growing narrow; indumentum both the sides, changing from puberulous to glabrescent.
Ahhh, my inflorescence… Its axis is lengthened; bracts growing from the axis are foliaceous I have paraclade that are persistent; position of the paraclade are axillary to the leaf of the rosette; my spathe is puberulous; number and disposition of the scape per paraclade are more of than one and they are umbellate in shape; my scapes are deciduous when my fruit is mature; indumentum of the scape is hispid to sericeous and my trichome is simple; the inflorescence of the capituliform is hemispheric; form of the involucral-bracts are elliptic to obovate. My flowers: bracts are floral and they are oblong to elliptic in shape; corolla flower is male and urceolate. I contain many genders in me and yes, I must admit it’s complex.
A few of your kind that studied me said I’m rare, according to the seven forms of rarity indices that classify all species and assess their conservation status.
I also suffer from your kind. The fires you spread or the outrageous mining activities in my surroundings. I might disappear from the face of the Earth if you continue like that.
But it was not always like this: once upon a time, ten thousand years ago, when there were only a few of you, you were nomads. You lived primarily as hunter-gatherers, relying on your environment for sustenance and tools. You were on the cusp of transitioning to a more settled, agricultural lifestyle, but the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle still dominated many regions, including here. You were constantly moving to follow food sources and seasonal changes. It seems in some parts of other territories you were already cultivating and domesticating my type of beings. You called this era the Neolithic revolution.
But here, you were merely spectators, just like me. With the help of a red ink made of a mix of minerals, blood from animals, saliva, eggs, you made the first translations and representations of your environment, etching your ideas to the rock surfaces. I wonder why one would have that urge, why the necessity to represent?
Cave painting, circa 10,000 yr, Várzea de São Gonçalo, MG, Brazil, Photo:Camila Rocha
Near me I know there are a few of some of those drawings. They are stunning indeed, and to think they are there for more than 10 thousand years is mind blowing. But what is more fascinating is how you decided to represent: you made them almost animated, the fish you caught, the quadrupeds you wanted, the deer, their legs, their hairs, painted with checkerboard filling, with small lines in various directions. You added a movement to a rock that is standing so still. I sometimes wonder if you are still doing the same in other parts of the planet.
Video of Actinocephalus, Video: Camila Rocha
As for me, I stand here, almost still. I know I’m real and unique. I spend my days observing you pass by, storms pass by, the drought season passes by, and because of that I need to dig deeper to find water to feed myself. But also, I watch the flourishing season pass by, the many landscapes that those different dusks and downs may surface in front of me. I know I won’t be here for long, not even near the length of time that painting on the surface of that rock. I wish I was the one represented there, so I could remain forever. Is that the purpose of those representations? To live forever by being in the minds of other beings?
Now, let me introduce my own name, that is long and interesting: My name is Actinocephalus, it’s a pleasure to meet you. “Actino” means radiation, “Cephalus” originates from the Ancient Greek word “kephalē”, which means “head”. It's used as a name for combining forms, or in scientific contexts to denote something related to the head. In mythology, “Cephalus” also refers to a hero figure. Am I a hero?
What defines reality is language; a kind human friend that often comes to visit me, once whispered in my “ears”.
I’m real.
Camila Rocha,
June, 2025
Thanks to Vinicius Lucatelli, Anderson Santos and Suzana Martins
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