I recently watched Avatar: The Last Airbender and couldn't help but feel a deep connection with the character of Uncle Iroh. There's just something about his found balance in life, his pursuit of excellence in (what other people would consider) simple & mundane things, and of course his unconditional love for almost everyone. That 'Tales of Ba Sing Se' episode was too much for me that it made me do a little waterbending myself... of my tears.
The original recording of "Leaves from the Vine" uses a guqin (or it might be a gu zheng), but I think the song also sounds fitting with the Japanese koto considering that the Fire Nation was inspired by Imperial Japan and also because I want to honor the amazing voice actor who played Uncle Iroh in books 1 & 2.
- in honor of Mako Iwamatsu -