The title of this work comes from the very last reflection in the book on Haiti:
I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. (35.234)
This is Sophie's attempt to reconcile herself with the past, to understand that her mother (and her motherland) will always be a part of her life—for better and worse. It's in her DNA and in the memory of her own experiences there. She also carries the memories of all those women in her family who went before her.