Because this is an accomplishment that remains, to this day, a milestone in my personal history, I decided to share the introduction text here. Published in 2017, those words feel ever-so true today, 3 years later.
The Protea is a genus of plant that has fascinated me for a long time. It is known to have existed since the time the continents were one and today we can find close to a hundred variations of these plants, all with surprising diversity in both shape and colour. Yet however enchanting it is in its beauty, it is the symbolism carried by this African flower that resonates strongly within me: diversity, courage, transformation and change. These words spoke to me as I believe it is of the utmost importance to gather the courage to confront our deepest fears about ourselves and about the things we do not understand in others with complete honesty. Because it is by facing these fears that we allow them to be transformed within us as we learn to recognize, welcome with open arms and embrace the world in all of its wonderful diversity. I believe that this diversity constitutes the essence and beauty of our humanity and that in our will to cherish it, lies the hope for a real change towards unity. And so it was this rich inspiration that drove me to pay tribute, in a sense, to the origins of the music that I now humbly practice as I continue to travel on this road full of my own fears, my doubts, my transformations.
With all my love and open arms,
Martine Labbé
