Green Memories

Green Memories 

Created by Shahrokh Yadegari and Memo Akten

Visuals: Memo Akten

Vocals: Azam Ali

Violin: Keyavash Nourai

Composition, electronics and direction: Shahrokh Yadegari

Green Memories is a collaborative work by Shahrokh Yadegari and Memo Akten. It is composed of re-envisioned older pieces which together they find a new life. Much of the visual and musical material were created separately years ago, but are now edited, remixed, and remastered to come together harmoniously — complementing each other while maintaining their own identity and autonomy. The reimagined pieces are Yadegari: Green Memories (2008), Akten:: Waves 2.0: Terra (2023), Waves (2014), and Reincarnation (2009).

Green Memories is a sad yet hopeful meditation on our natural and mental ecology.  The piece is inspired by the poetry of Forough Farrokhzad, who has been hailed as one of the most important contemporary poets of Iran.  Farrokhzad's writing is revered for her depth of feeling and poignant philosophical approach toward the social and political issues of her time. In many of her poems written in the 1950s, such as I Pity the Garden (Green Memories), Earthly Verses, and Only Sound Remains, Farrokhzad expresses profound personal thoughts and feelings in simple words. In doing so, she foresees the future of our social, political, and natural ecologies.  Apparently written for a small patch of ground in her home, what she saw in I Pity the Garden has now become a global problem.

Poetry:

I pity the Garden by Forough Farrokhzad

published in 1965 after her death

No one thinks of the flowers

No one thinks of the fish

No one wants to believe

that the garden is dying

its heart swollen under the sun

its mind draining of green memories

slowly

slowly

and its senses rotting in seclusion

Our garden is lonely.

Yawning ... Waiting

for an offering from an unknown rain cloud

Our garden is lonely

Our pond is empty.

I am afraid of the age that has lost its heart

I am frightened

by the thought of so many futile hands

by the image of so many estranged faces

I think that the garden can be saved in a hospital

I think

I think

And the garden's heart is swollen under the sun

And its mind is slowly draining of green memories