Leafy

Leafy is Janie’s mother. When Nanny was younger, and a slave, the master of the plantation repeatedly raped her. Later Nanny ran away from the plantation and hid for months until the war ended. She named the baby Leafy because she had hidden the baby in the moss of the forest. When Leafy is seventeen, her school teacher rapes her, and Leafy has a baby soon after. She becomes an alcoholic and runs away. Leafy's traumatic life convinces Nanny to force Janie to marry when she is very young. Leafy was born shortly before the end of the Civil War and ran away after giving birth to Janie.