New World

             Last Friday, I was invited to visit a banana farm of a farmer who received banana plantlets from our center who benefited from our “Plant now, pay later” scheme. Initially, the Agricultural Technologist (AT) assigned to the area informed me that the bananas grew well. Feeling excited, I wanted to see the bananas in the area how good they are growing there as soon as possible.

            The AT whom I called Ate Dioly told me to bring an umbrella when I will go there because of the short hike to reach the site. I was feeling confident that it was just a short hike, really.  But, I was wrong. Two kilometers was far too near, than what I was expecting. Though it was quite a distance, I forgot the tiresome hike while savoring the almost void and newly developed area for oil palm plantation.  
           

.            It seemed like an earth on the early stage of creation. The surrounding was quite void with the presence of burnt logs, woods, grasses and black soil, yet with 3-year old oil palms stretching towards the horizon. Some of the oil palm areas were newly slashed with towering grasses while others are still hidden behind by soaring, thick grasses, waiting to be cleared up. While on other areas, cassava plants, which are unusually taller than the cassava planted in our station, breaks the monotony of oil palm being planted in between.

               A bridge I considered a link between the real world and the world of new dimension. What dimension it is, I do not know. I felt a feeling beyond description of seeing this kind of environment, which is far too different from the busy and noisy town or close neighborhood of a compact farm houses of the barangay before the bridge. 

                 From there, you will trek a 1-2 meter wide road along a purposely constructed canal, which cost them around P500k.  The canal that also measures, 1.5 – 3 meters wide served drainage of the area so planting of crops can be possible, like the oil palm, aside of course, from marsh crops. This also served as channel for transportation.

         In cities or towns, shining cars lined in front of houses, but here, you will find wooden boat anchored below a bridge or just a peg at the bank in front of their houses.

              Wrong parking is not a problem here. A boat may block the canal, yet, there is no reported traffic outrage in the locality.

Father and son preparing to their boat to transport their product -  wood for cooking

Cassava tuber waiting to be transported

The boat is still anchored while the owner is still busy negotiating at the market for the price probably of his product. A pile of wood is still beside the canal bank waiting for a fair deal, probably.

In the middle of the stretch of oil palm plantation doing to the side, I assumed this farmer has a sense of art. It seemed out of place, a magical sprout, a wish from a genie, made true. In the background are oil palm though planted in a straight line manner yet there are remains of logs, stumps, buried woods, creating a topsy- turvy surrounding. Despite of this, simple flowers of varied colors adorned the front yard of the house creating a vibrant atmosphere in this black and green environment.

 the central port -The anchored boats at the entrance of the canal are waiting to bring its owner back inside the area after a day’s transaction in the town or in the barangay

the budding community

       Before I forgot, I was there to look for the banana. . Well, they were good after 3 series of accidental burning when the adjacent areas were burned. You can see there that there is still a thick organic matter, as you are like stepping on foam in some of the part of the area, the soil is richly dark. 

      While the sun has not completely set at the west, we decided to return back to the world I used to know.