My name is Isabella Massamba and I am a researcher and a teacher.
I measure time with the passing of the moons and am deeply connected to mother earth and her cycles. This is why I studied Natural Sciences, Shamanism and spent most of my life traveling and exploring the world and people.
After teaching for years at the University and in schools, I have undertaken a private dissemination activity to bring the public closer to the world of plants, through courses and practical activities of home herbal medicine and natural cooking based on spontaneous and medicinal plants.
I studied pastry and cooking and I practiced them in restaurants and as a personal chef.
Now I have my own farm “Botanical Art”, where I produce liqueurs, sweets and preparations based on medicinal plants and flowers.
I’m already ready for the next trip.
1. Have you ever thought that women can’t be inspirational?
Never. indeed, I have to thank my first and best inspiration, my grandmother, the woman I have most admired in my life. And then all the women able to realize their dreams and make them concrete, which allow those who think it is not possible to do so, that if you want, you can almost always.
Of course there are people facilitated in everything, the important thing is to be able to build our dreams to our personal measure and not pretend to emulate and become clones. Our uniqueness is the key to accessing creativity.
Never be envious, always take as an example who is better and see their achievements as a goal.
2. What biases (preconceptions) did you face?
First you need to point out the fact that I look much younger than my age and have an exotic appearance. These two characteristics in Italy are not a useful business card to be respected as an interlocutor at the first try. I was asked to present the proxy from my boss in order to open legal positions when it was clearly written that I was the owner of the company. In the common imagination the word “entrepreneur” is linked to a successful male individual in a suit and tie.
3. Have you ever taken risks?
All time. I follow my instincts and do what I like, at the cost of looking out of reality and completely crazy. No matter the judgment of others, very often prudence is only the most stagnant fear, Battisti sang. We could die tomorrow, this is the risk we run: that of having lived looking for the courage to be ourselves. The important thing is not to take the longest step of the leg and take risks so that you can be independent when there will be falls, which unfortunately is inevitable in the path of exploration of life.
4. What obstacles did you face to get to where you are now?
The biggest obstacle has always been fear or the inability to close chapters. If you have been in a job for 15 years and find that it is no longer your thing, thinking about leaving it is not only a tragedy, it also makes time spent in that role seem like a waste of time. you threw your life away, they will tell you.
Instead, it’s a bit like leaving a long-time boyfriend with whom you no longer have anything in common: you fight to save the relationship, but all you do is waste more time that could instead be used to create new opportunities, develop other passions, fall in love with someone or something better. In reality, each phase of our life is a set of experiences that must be collected and exploited, without binding us too much to the people and events that can no longer be part of our existence. Recognizing when it’s time to end a phase is the hardest and most important part of feeling good.
The most difficult thing for me to accept was the absence of meritocracy in the university environment and the fact that recommendations and favoritism did not send the best, but the chosen ones. Same thing goes for justice: if you’re not rich enough, it hardly exists.
I had to overcome several very heavy griefs, which took away my will to live. Starting a new job and a new project has always been a cause for healing.
I decided to follow the path of my passions even though it was not the simplest, safest and most well-paid one.
5. If your life were a book, what would it be called?
I am a traveler so: “Isy’s travels”
