This March and April, the Vodice Public Library hosted activities focused on native wild edible plants and their seeds. Through foraging, creating cyanotype prints, and collecting seeds, participants explored different ways of learning while helping make seed distribution easier and more accessible.

This is a part of the Vodice Public Library program “Pijat zeja” (it roughly translates as “A plate with wild edible green plants”) which became a part of the Flora Dalmatica Nature Festival. Storytelling seed cookie workshop “Zelena riječ naživo” (translates as to make green messages live, but also “na živo” is a method of cookig these plants) was created by art historian and curator Sanja Mrša Vukman. She held a workshop for children and adults on National Book Night, connecting storytelling, plants, and co-creation. First, participants, listened to The Dance Dress of the Yellow Dandelion by the great Croatian kids’ writer Sunčana Škrinjarić, and then the workshop part of the program began.

Starting from the idea of a “green word” – a word that is sown, travels, and grows – participants made small paper “seed cookies” squashing paper with dandelion seeds and other wild edible plants. Some of the works were taken home, and some were donated to the “Vitrina djeteta” (Children’s Showcase), thus developing its display as a living space of exchange.

The workshop is also an introduction to the broader story of the Children’s Showcase – a special cultural infrastructure for building a community. Located in the premises of the Vodice City Library, the display case fosters the idea of a librarian “host” and a kind of “correspondence renaissance”: through encounters, exchange and the creation of small, traveling artifacts that connect people, plants and stories, building a sense of belonging and a culture of living.

Text by: Martina Tabula

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