How should we view death? Is there an end to life? When our lives end, will we leave a trace on this planet? Will anyone remember us and mourn us?

When people die, their bodies are buried beneath the earth, and as time passes, flowers surround some headstones. Even though some headstones are brand new, many are stained, suggesting that no one remembers who these people were or where they came from.

Death is not the end of life, forgetting is the end of life.

In China, the growth of plants on graves is a symbol of good fortune and the descendants of the deceased receive shelter and blessings. In Britain, old graves likewise are home to a variety of plants. It makes people think that even when a person's life is over, it persists through other substances and continues to live on in the world.

Visiting various London cemeteries, the moment I saw the forgotten gravestones, I wanted to collect the plants on these crumbling gravestones and trace their veins to make a series of portraits of lives, which, through the textures and veins of the plants, can be used to feel the passing and continuity of life, while at the same time focusing on these forgotten people and stories, and conveying the tribute to them.

I pressed the plants onto different paper types and strung the pages together to form a handmade book. The translucent rice paper traces the veins of the plants, and the cyclical pattern of the rebirth of life is reflected in the changing colours and textual elements. The final page is burned rice paper with calligraphy that is a metaphor for the afterlife and the process of passing away, where the body is reclaimed by the earth and surrounded by another form (plants).