Ode to niyog
Rows and rows in glaring sunlight, rustling along the coasts and on mountain slopes, the crowns blown to stars, while the one that stands alone resembles a great roaster on a long grayish stilt. And if the monsoon rains fall, like curtains of lead, their head functions as a funnel that pours the water down the trunk to drench the mosses and dark clump of roots. And when the storm passes they bow like grasses. A tribute to a tree as gracious as it is useful. I will never forget my first glass of tuba. I got it from one of my two fishermen friends I saw sharing the drink while I was crossing the bay in a bangka. How he managed to climb down with it in one hand, I still do not understand.
The tree that feeds, quenches, supplies materials for shelter, cleaning, cosmetics and souvenirs, gives fuel and even can cure; is there another one in the world that has so many gifts? And the image of the palm was surely in everybody’s palm. Because of the good money earned by copra the coco nucifera appeared on the side of many peso coin.
The niyog is maybe only despised by sons and daughters who have to polish the floor everyday with the top of the husk under their foot. Although, in a TV commercial for a wax, a military officer once came to their help, thanks to the excellence of the product he could order his subordinates/katulong to ‘surrender ang bunot’. But beware of the dry nuts if you want to sit down on the foot of a tree, brain damage could be the result of negligence. Although, I know of two brothers; a coconut bounced off one’s head upon the other. The first one became a teacher, the second one a physician. By the way, only a lot of lambanog (coconut brandy) can turn you into a real nutcase.
Even so, such inconveniences are futile compared to the benefits. O, lovely buko (green bud) with your sweet fizzy water and your delicious thin layer of jelly flesh; I can have ten of you;
Millionaire’s cabbage they call your heart after you are toppled. And then, tree of glee, your varnished skin may decorate my walls. Your round seeds are like heads that children use to float on in the sea. And I hope that our Dutch queen, if she ever pays a visit to the Philippines, will be treated to one of your buds in her royal color orange.
– Story by Anonymous –
