Sumud Triptych is a three-panel graphite meditation on the Al-Walaja Olive Tree. At between 3 and 5 thousand years old, it is widely regarded as the oldest living tree in Palestine. Standing just outside the village of al-Walaja Northwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank, the tree is both a biological marvel and a living witness to centuries of Palestinian life, care, and endurance. Rendered in dense, patient layers of graphite, the drawings honor not only the tree’s monumental form but also the quiet labor and generational devotion that have kept it alive.
The title Sumud—the Arabic word for steadfastness—anchors the work in a specifically Palestinian ethic of remaining, tending, and refusing erasure. Like the people who have protected it, the olive tree persists through violence, displacement, and time itself. Its twisted trunk bears the marks of weather, pruning, and history, yet continues to fruit.
Each panel approaches the tree from a distinct theological and human register. Mercy contemplates the tree as a gift, sustained by forces beyond human control: rain, soil, and grace. Petition presents the tree as a figure of prayer, its contorted limbs rising like hands asking for protection, justice, and continued life. The final panel, Al-Badawi, names the Palestinian family who has cared for the tree across generations, grounding the image in lived relationship rather than abstraction. The tree is not a relic; it is held, known, and loved.
Together, the triptych frames the olive tree as both witness and participant in Palestinian history—an embodied archive of land, memory, and belonging. Drawn in graphite, a medium built from compressed carbon and time, the work mirrors the tree itself: layered, fragile, and enduring.
