Smokable herbs

Ahh sweet smoking, light up, inhale, relax, release. Maybe its tobacco all cosy in white paper, hugged by a soft filter you kiss at every opportunity.  Or perhaps it’s the first spliff after a hard days work, sweet sativa setting you at ease. Smoking feels so good amirite? Yet so often laced with guilt – and of course, smoking is really bad for you especially if you abuse it, no matter what you smoke. But really tobacco is particularly harsh, as gratifying as nicotine can be it is a potent neurotoxin. This shit is in insecticides used in golf courses, orchards, your Aunty’s garden and your dog’s flea and tick muthi. Tobacco is a plant from the family Solanaceae, same fam as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, and the many notorious plants (famously used as drugs, assassins poisons of choice, witches brews and so much literature) such as mandrake, Datura and of course, Deadly Nightshade.

When we think smoking, we think tobacco, the two are synonymous with each other yet tobacco is from the America’s only. Out here Wilde Dagga is famous for being smoked, a mix of leaves and the bright orange flowers, the plant is incredibly bitter with a sweet finish if you taste it and this translates in the taste of the smoke. This act of smoking Wilde Dagga is an ancient one, so it’s gotta make you think which other plants are smokable and how is it that tobacco became The Plant to smoke? Tobacco has a firm hold in the stories of colonialism, sacred plants taken from native lands, commoditised by early multi-nationals with little story of its multiple and ancient use. This pretty much stayed the same until today, cigarettes made famous through mostly British and American culture, through wars and cowboy aesthetic. I mean, whomst the fuck is Peter Stuyvesant anyways? (Answer: an actual Dutch coloniser who was set up in New Netherland, now New York).

I think it was 2015, I’d gone to a festival and met up with a friend (shout outs FR) on the dancefloor who shared a joint mixed with mint as he was on his tobacco fast. As I inhaled, my imagination peeled like an onion, a rolodex of smokable plants played in my mind and having super smell and taste as my superpowers, I began exploring herbs I had at hand. This was my botanical apogee; I am in constant exploration and experimentation mode with botanicals, getting to know them in all their potentials from food to bodycare, home care to medicine, sex to menstruation and now smoking. And not just smoking but the supporting act botanicals in smoking too: plants as filters, plants as papers, plants as pipes, plants to burn. This was not something my Horticulture Diploma taught me.

Smoking other plants aside from tobacco opened a whole world of possibility, now smoking botanicals is part of my care routine, between smudging, incense and cigarettes, the play of fire and air, the relaxation, the seemingly ancient act reminds me of all the different reasons people smoke. Understanding plants means I can create blends specific to needs: a soft aching heart? I’ll wrap up some rose petals, marshmallow root and a touch of spearmint and let the sweetness release me. Stressed out and on deadline? I’ll smoke some mielie silk with mullein and a touch of cardamom powder. Rosemary and mullein help relieve my lungs while sage helps me ease headaches. Always add a bit of moisture (like water mixed with honey) to keep the fire burning, dried herbs burn so easily and are harsh on the throat without moisture to carry some of the volatile oils. Remember, this aint tea: tobacco and ganja are cured, not dried, the same goes for all smoking herbs.

Zayaan Khan is based in Cape Town where she runs Smokables SA. Zayaan is dedicated to unhinging cultural dependence from neoliberalism.