As a general rule oof elements close to the camera than the subject tend to be distracting, particularly when they take a large portion of the frame.
If you crop from the left and right to come in tight on the central leaves and crop from the bottom as well (either maintain 2:3 or go to 4:5 aspect ratio) I think it would work better.
I do quite like the background, the tones of the greens through it, but you would probably benefit from removing those rogue leaves at the back so they do not distract.