The field looks bleak and ocher, but Cleto, one of the farmers in Moray village, showed us how ‘colorful’ the place is. The plants provide them not only food, but medicine, dye, even strings and needles. It was June 2022, when I traveled for the first time to Moray ruins guided by Virgilio, Pia, Malena, and “the family” of Mater, including indigenous people, who has been living there for the centuries. I had an opportunity to think deeply about the things what we’ve created.

Moray is considered as an agricultural research site, built by Inca people. To feed the people in huge empire, they need to know the best way to grow the grains and vegetables. Since Inca people doesn’t use the written words, we just can’t tell who created this, but this walking tour with Cleto showed me enough how amazing their ideas are, and how developed and thoughtful their culture established by nameless people living in 13-16th centuries.
By seeing that, I was caught by one idea- about creativity.
As same as the industrial revolution has changed our lifestyle, in modern era, social media changed the world.
“Being creative” is the nature of human being, but nowadays it’s also the seed of struggles. Once posted on the digital platform, the creation will be spread until the other side of the world, and on the next day, you’ll see the posts of ‘similar’ creations everywhere.
That fact would stimulate the people’s creativity, accelerate the evolution of the industry, but on the other hand, it suffers the creators. In our case-chefs.

Regardless of amount of the sweat, tears, efforts and passion the creators put into, there’s ‘copies’ and no one can see ‘who’s the original’.
The overwhelming information causes the tougher competition, and the pressure to make new and original creations every day is enormous. After the tough birth pangs, next day, it turns to be “old” creations. It is almost like ‘consumed and disposed’ in a blink. In the past, it was also happened in the creators’ world, but now the intensity is far beyond.
Well, maybe we should change the perspective. By being shared, the ideas break the cell of individual identity-or ego- should we call, then belongs to everyone.
Actually, to be consumed and to spread the words look quite similar.
If your creation carries the goodwill and wisdom, even if no one could see whose creation it is, your message will spread to the world together with creation.
Seeing how the indigenous people living besides of Mil, and Moray ruins made by the wisdom of ancient people in Peru, it’s very clear that, our lives are based on our ancestors’ wisdom.
But can we name them? Thousands of years of the human history, the name doesn’t actually matter. Within the decades or centuries, our individual identities will melt into the human history anyways. But still, could we leave something? I would like to believe the answer is “Yes”. Even it is the tiny wave in the vast ocean, we can build or leave something good to the future.

Instead of focusing on the surface of the ‘creativity’, why not think deep inside of the creativity, what kind of the goodwill and wisdom can we leave to the future.
“a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain until it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains”. It is said.
By creating what you love, let’s be the nameless people who didn’t leave anything, but the goodwill and wisdom of the life.
Photos by: Kyoko Nakayama