Nfinda, 16 x 22 to 30 x 40 inches, charcoal on Canson, exhibition view, Oscar Fernandez Morera Art Gallery, Sancti Spiritus, December 20th, 2022. Photo © Alian Rives' Studio

Nfinda carries a meaning much richer than simply “forest” or “woods.” Scholarly and ethnographic sources describe nfinda/mfinda as a forest or wilderness understood as a spiritually charged natural realm. Nfinda becomes a reterritorialized landscape: a space where cultural memory and spiritual identity persist despite separation from their original geographic and cultural contexts.