What returns documents a practice of making and wearing temporary leaf masks during three autumn days of solitary hiking in the woods of Virginia in October 2025. I collected fallen leaves (sycamore, tulip poplar) and held them against my face for self-portraits before returning them to the forest floor. The masks evolved across three stages: first, complete concealment behind whole leaves that blocked all sight; second, partial revelation through leaves torn open or found with natural decay; third, reconstruction, smaller leaves attached to larger ones with saliva to create new eyes. In wearing them, I became something else: a self between selves. The work explores cycles of transformation and the practice of learning to see. For a long time, I have been unable to perceive the world abundant, closed by loss. But the capacity to notice, to be struck by what surrounds us, returns whether we feel ready or not. The leaves fall, decay, and nourish the soil each season. Wonder follows its own cycles of loss and return.
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