Under the weight of the living (India, Kerala)

In the southern Indian state of Kerala , the city of Thiruvananthapuram is a major center of Ayurvedic medicine , a centuries-old tradition based on the combined use of plants, massage, and food. Many private and community gardens there cultivate medicinal plants used to make oils, decoctions, poultices, and powders.

The man in the photograph is carrying a mass of plants on his head. This type of manual transport remains common in rural areas of Kerala, where the roads are sometimes too narrow for vehicles and where the connection to life is evident in every gesture.

Rather than an individual portrait, the image reveals a form of silent cohabitation between man and his environment . The human figure is almost erased by the volume of vegetation, recalling the symbolic and practical importance of nature in the daily life of southern India.