No 43 - Trees

When my dad acquired this house in the 60s from the owner, there were only two sizeable fruit trees - a starfruit tree in the middle of the front court yard and a tall, large indian cherry tree at the back. The star fruit tree was with us for a couple of years and its branches heavily trimmed. Soon new branches emerged and flowered - the tiny red flowers attacting bees and dews /waterdrops 'sparkled' after overnight rain and against morning rays from the sun. But too bad the star fruits were small ,bitter-tasted and sour so my dad decided to chop it down. The deep-rooted stump remained and was the site of many after-dinner plaything. I hollowed the soil around the root-system, collected twigs and branches and fueled the fire with papers from our study wastspaper basket. The smoke had kept the swarms of mosquitoes away for nights. Soon the stump turned into ashes, the ground was leveled and a buah 'longlong*' ( my mum called this buah gunong* perhaps a mis-pronounciation of the kedongdong ) seedling was planted some distance away. Years passed and the kedongdong (Golden apple, Hog-plum, Otaheite Apple) or Spondias cytherea tree became a landmark. At its prime the buah longlong fruits were so plentiful that i remembered guni-sacks after guni-sacks of the mature green fruits were harvested using a bamboo pole ( but fetched dirt-cheap $). Some like to eat it pickled in vinegar/cherry, some like to eat it freshly sliced and sprinkled with plume salt and with dark- soy sauce/cherry. I liked mine fully ripened - soft, and sweet( taste a bit like a cross of ripe pineapple and mango) inside. The fruit contains a single stone with fibre radiating outwards.

A 'thud' sound in the quiet of the night meant another mature buah kedongdong fruit to be picked the next day. This tree had 'accompanied' me through the schooling years : my primary, secondary and even after my graduation. During my secondary day, i have brought a fruit to show to my American Science Teacher (Peace-Corp) - he thought it was some sort of a plum ( he was quite right as this fruit was nicknamed Hog-Plum) . This landmark tree had bore witnesses to snarl numerous passing 'kites' that had fallen out of the sky as losers of kite-fighting competition and kids were fighting to be the first to get to the fallen trophies . The tree had also offered temporary refuge of a frighten cat from my a pursuing dog and in peaceful time - a tree-climbing target for some of my cats ( I had a dozen cats and two dogs before).