In the silence of a peaceful garden, a leaf rises like an ancient prayer, a breath offered to the invisible.

Sacred tobacco, Nicotiengà, is not a culinary herb in the usual sense of the word: it is first and foremost a plant of connection. In many Indigenous cultures of the Americas, it carries memory, intention, and spirituality. It is used as an offering, to accompany a prayer or expression of gratitude, or placed in a significant location—at the foot of a tree, in water, or on the ground—as part of symbolic or ceremonial gestures.

This tobacco is also sometimes ritually smoked in a peace pipe, or incorporated into specific smoking mixtures, according to traditional protocols passed down by elders. These uses are not merely practical: they are part of a relational knowledge that connects the human world, the land, and the forces of life. In certain contexts, its leaves are recognized for their medicinal properties, particularly for helping to purify the mind or soothe certain ailments.

Apart from sacred uses, its high concentration of nicotine allows it to be used as a natural insecticide, in the form of maceration or liquid manure, in a gardening approach without chemical inputs.

Welcoming sacred tobacco into the garden is a gesture imbued with respect — not for simple personal use, but to bear witness to the living relationship between humans and plants, while recognizing that some traditional uses do not belong to us.

It is recommended to learn with humility about the cultural dimensions of this plant, and to cultivate it with an approach of listening, openness and gratitude.