Sarv-e Āzād (The Free Cypress), 2026

“Sarv-e Āzād” is a handkerchief inscribed with Sohrab Sepehri's poem The Address (Neshani), a meditation on longing, belonging, and the search for home through the experience of migration. Rather than illustrating the poem, the work places its words in dialogue with the Persian cypress.

At its center stands the cypress, an ancient Persian symbol of eternity and resilience. For me, it embodies a people who remain rooted despite distance, loss, and displacement. No matter how far we travel, something of Iran continues to live within us, through memory, language, and the work of our hands.