Created by Lebanese artist Leila Jabre Jureidini, Baobab Purple, 2024, is a small-scale mixed-media work that combines painting and embroidery. A large baobab tree stands prominently at the center of the composition. Its trunk, stitched in deep purples and vibrant magenta wool, rises vertically and anchors the piece, while its crown is rendered in thick, tufted green and yellow-green threads that evoke dense, textured foliage. Delicate pink branch-like forms curl from the upper trunk, adding a touch of whimsy. The background is painted in soft acrylic washes of blue, suggesting an open sky. Below, the land is made of textured green stitching that creates the sense of a rolling landscape. The contrast between the flat paint and the raised thread gives the work a sensory quality, inviting its viewers to engage with both visual and tactile layers.

This piece is part of Jabre Jureidini’s Baobab: The Tree of Life series, inspired by her first encounter with real baobabs in Zanzibar. Although she had previously only seen the tree illustrated in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, she describes seeing one in person as “love at first sight.” Captivated by their surreal shape, immense size, and symbolic presence, she began seeking them out across the landscape. In many African cultures, the baobab is revered as a symbol of strength, life, and community often planted to mark births or honor ancestors. An Arabian legend even suggests that the devil planted the tree upside down, with its roots in the air, echoing the tree’s peculiar and iconic silhouette. Ecologically, baobabs are vital: they store water, provide shelter, and offer food and medicine to both humans and animals.

For Jabre Jureidini, stitching, weaving, and painting are acts of homage and her way “of honoring the magical beauty of these majestic trees.” Her work preserves not only their visual form but also their cultural and ecological significance especially in the face of environmental losses, such as the recent collapse of Namibia’s 1,275-year-old “Grootboom” tree. More than a portrait of a tree, Baobab Purple is a meditation on resilience, rootedness, and transformation celebrating a beauty that shelters life, holds memory, and endures through time.