Week Two: The Jamaica Kinkaid Deep Dive

Jamaica Kincaid is not a gardener who writes. She’s a writer who gardens. And there’s a difference.

A gardener who writes would tell you about proper techniques, optimal conditions, the right way to do things. They’d give you rules. They’d teach you how to control your garden, how to make it bend to your will, how to make it look like the gardens in magazines.

Jamaica Kincaid tells you the truth: gardening is about choosing what lives and what dies. And most of what you let die should die.

She’s our muse this week because she understands something most of us have forgotten: neglect, when applied with intention, isn’t laziness. It’s wisdom. It’s the only way to make space for what actually wants to grow.