Replanting What Was Uprooted

There’s a word that stays with me: derasinen.

To be uprooted. To be pulled from what once held you steady.

That’s what happened to me too. I was brought to the U.S. at six years old, separated from the land I was born into because of instability that felt bigger than all of us. I didn’t know it then, but I was being pulled from something deeper—our rhythm, our language, our soil.

Still, roots don’t die easily.

Even when we’re torn from the ground, something in us remembers. Something holds on.

That’s why I returned. Not because everything was waiting, not because it was easy. But because the land still called. And Grown in Haiti became my way of answering. Not just to deforestation or broken systems, but to the feeling of disconnection.

We plant trees. We share seeds. But more than anything, we try to reconnect what was torn. Roots to earth. People to land. Each of us to something older than memory.

Now, more of us are coming back. Sometimes by choice, sometimes not. But I want to say this clearly—returning is not failure. It is not the end of the road. It can be the start of something real.

If you’ve been uprooted and find yourself returning, know this: your roots are still alive. You haven’t lost what grounds you. It just needs space to grow again.

To regenerate is to re-root.

That’s the invitation.