Inspired by “The Tree Without a Name”, a poem by Dzikamayi Chando

This painting is a visual meditation of the sacred nameless tree of Marondera, Zimbabwe. A site of ancestral rituals and royal burials, this rare tree bears many types of leaves on a single body. It is one of only three such trees in the country.

Illustrated for Dzikamayi Chando’s poem The Tree without a Name, the painting explores the tension between life and death, memory and myth. Just as the poem contemplates grief and ancestral memory, the painting reflects dualities. The simultaneous presence of the sun and moon, a phenomenon known as syzygy, offers a moment of cosmic balance. This celestial harmony becomes a metaphor for the spiritual equilibrium held within the tree itself, where opposing forces are not separate, but complementary aspects of a larger whole. In a world full of named things, this tree remains unclaimed, but not unknown. It is a monument that resists definition, its presence echoing through the land where it is rooted, and through the living heritage of its people.