Well, you aren't tasting, smelling, or hearing anything. seeing is a possibility, but I feel like it's using "touch".
The author sees immigrants as carrying their roots with them. This would lend to the further idea of replanting in a different location to grow and spread, perhaps healthier than before.
The Iliad was about the last couple of weeks of the Trojan War, specifically the really significant events that happened those last couple of weeks, and the Greek siege of the city of Troy.
