A wonderful tribute to Esiah Levy, an amazing man. Written by Ruby Tandoh

Here we are hurtling through February and it still feels like the new year! So much has happened since my last post, the most exciting being that we have become grandparents‼️ We visited the U.K. in December and stayed with my daughter and her other half, we arrived the day before her planned induction (which went pear shaped, but that’s another post) and came back after the new year. All I can say is thank goodness for tech. and video calling! It’s not the same as cuddles but we at least get to see and talk to our beautiful granddaughter several times a day.

More on being a crazy in love grandma soon, today I want to post a piece written by Ruby Tandoh about an amazing man who touched so many people worldwide and was taken far too soon, long before he’d achieved all his goals. Please share, and if you can afford to donate a little please do, thanks.
Click the picture or any of the text below to read the full piece.

Empire of Seeds

The Life and Dreams of Esiah Levy

Ruby Tandoh

Feb 19 · 31 min read

Illustration: Sinae Park

If you enjoy reading about Esiah’s remarkable work, please consider donating here to help cover the costs of having this essay printed into booklets for Esiah’s friends and family. Money raised will cover the costs of the illustrator and the printing and postage of the booklets. Any extra money will be donated to Squash Liverpool — a community food enterprise in Liverpool — a cause chosen by Esiah’s wife Kealy.

Illustration: Sinae Park
Photos: Maria Bell
Words: Ruby Tandoh

The seeds would arrive in envelopes, their names scrawled in ballpoint pen across the back. ‘Giant Hubbard,’ read one packet, the seeds for the heavy, dense-fleshed squash landing in Wiltshire in England’s rural south-west. A package of squash and corn seeds found its way to a village perched on Senegal’s coast, just south of the nation’s capital, Dakar. In Cypress, southern California, a similar parcel arrived. Inside the crumpled paper was a jumble of seeds for rhubarb and beautiful, mosaic-like glass gem corn, each kernel shimmering a different colour.

It was an operation as vast as it was ramshackle. . .