Plants not only make our lives possible but meaningful. So why do we think so little of their everyday presence?

Since childhood, Cynthia Fan has made plants her life's work – scientifically studying, artistically arranging, and simply obsessing over their surprising quirks and nature.

In this, her debut collection of plant writing, Fan ponders the most profound questions of plant life – What exactly is a leaf? How does a plant think? – by delving into her own, as well as the world around her, whether it be in the South Africa of her birth, the China of her ancestors, or the blustery Britain in which she works today.

Accompanied by her own photos and sculptural arrangements, Fan finds both plants and people in a constant dance of deception and adaptation, inviting her readers to marvel at the true fluidity of biology, the supremacy of serendipity, and the porous boundaries between self and environment.