How to upload images from front-end to public folder in React

I want to be able to upload images to the ReactJS public folder straight from the front-end on both development and production. For production I am using heroku app with a nodejs backend.

From all the tutorials I have found online for uploading images with ReactJS they all use server-side to upload them to a cloud but I am wondering if it is possible to just upload them to the public folder like Lavarel does and if there are any drawbacks doing so?

The file just needs to be sent through an endpoint and on the NodeJS server deal with it like this. This server uploads the image file to public/uploads folder of the ReactJS client. Then in the response returns the file name and file path.

app.post('/upload', (req, res) => {
  if (req.files === null) {
  return res.status(400).json({ msg: 'No file uploaded' });
  }

  const file = req.files.file;

  file.mv(`${__dirname}/client/public/uploads/${file.name}`, err => {
    if (err) {
      console.error(err);
      return res.status(500).send(err);
    }

    res.json({ fileName: file.name, filePath: `/uploads/${file.name}` });
  });
});