stranglevine - can choose to pay upkeep?

[tedhaha]

When I read stranglevine's text,
It feels like player who control can choose whether to pay upkeep (direct damage + life buff) or not.

Just wanna make sure how it works 

[V10lentray]

All upkeep costs are optional. 

Per Codex -

This object’s controller pays X mana during each Upkeep Phase or this object is destroyed.

[echephron]

Note that if you dont pay the upkeep, the vine is destroyed. You cant just choose to stop paying for it to grow bigger.

[Zuberi]

I know it wasn't asked, but it seems to be such a common question I thought I'd also point out that the life gain is not cumulative. If it had three crush tokens on it, it would have twelve life total (2x3 + base of 6).