Market Friday: visiting a plant nursery in town.

During the last two months, we have been busy planting tree saplings in the empty fields. The soil was still soft enough for digging without getting exhausted too quickly. The weather was getting cooler as winter season has finally arrived. Besides we could get a youngster to help with the digging and dragging loads of young banana plants to the fields. So, we were quite pleased with the small achievement in two months; we planted over eighty plants excluding those banana shoots. I told my gardener that these trees would become her salaries in the future when fiat money would become meaningless in times of global financial and political upheavals.

There was still some empty plots for a few more trees, so my gardener asked me to get some sapodilla (scientific name: Manikara Zapota). I told her we already had four of these in the garden by the house. But she would love to have a new kind of sapodilla that had long oval fruits! These fruits are very sweet but full of minerals and vitamin C. These would fetch good prices among villagers. So, I had to go around plant nurseries in the small sleepy town looking for such a plant in the morning.

Incredibly, my friends’ nursery had sold out these trees! I had to venture a bit further to another plant nursery. Surprising, this place was full of colourful pot plants to be sold for Christmas and New Year decorations. They also sold out all sapodilla trees! There would be a glut of sapodilla fruits in the local market in a few years’ time! I took my time walking around the nursery taking photos of plants and flowers. The cooler temperature was really good for the flowering of these festive pot plants.

People are crazy about foliage plant especially those plants with spotted leaves in white streaks. Banana plants with white streaks in their leaves have become very expensive as people believe that these would bring them good luck and prosperity. Owners of these special bananas have become millionaires overnight just by selling a few plants! This has led to widespread theft in spotty banana plants. Owners had to install lots of cameras and thief alarms in their gardens.

Most people are very superstitious and we have lots of folklores about special spirits living in banana plants! Local villagers still believe that each banana plant has at least one spirit inside; so they have to ask for permission whenever they want to cut or harvest some bananas. Recently my gardener told me that she had found out why one banana cluster had suddenly turn yellow and looked as if they were dying. After she performed a ceremony to apologise for the wrongdoings of some teenagers, the banana cluster recovered and became green again. I asked her what offended the spirit of banana plants. She gingerly told me that some teenagers were having sex under the bananas! I was amazed at how she did manage to find out about this, but I decided not to press for more information. I didn’t want to embarrass her unnecessarily; I thought these could be someone closed to her family.

In the past, police trucks had to patrol along the river as drug users seemed to gathered along the river at night to buy some speeds or ya-maa. The banana groves could offer good camouflage and a hiding place. Luckily, those stray dogs now patrol the fields and run along the river at night. So, strangers would have no chance to be unnoticed by these dogs. My gardener searched for spotty banana plants but couldn’t find any! She missed the chance of becoming a millionaire!

The owners of the plant nursery were busy loading up hundreds of pot plants onto the pickup truck. So, I had a good time among these flowers and green leafy but expensive plants. People are still crazy about cacti but the trend has already shifted to plants with white streaks or spots on their leaves. These incredibly expensive plants are being sold by counting the numbers of leaves! Rare spotty leaf could cost up to a hundred dollars per leaf! I might have to learn to paint on leaves to make some extra income! But the colour might run and I would get caught thus ending my dream of some income. I failed in my art subject so I’d better stick to growing fruit trees!

However there is no doubt in my mind that there are some spirits living in some trees and big plants. But I am not certain about pot plants, flowering plants and orchids. There might be something to do with the duration of the plants or trees. These ‘ruka-dhevatta’ (tree spirits) need a tree or plant with long life as they have to reside there for quite a long time before they could be reincarnated into another dimension. They have to be ‘settled down’ for many years waiting for their turns of rebirth. Many people who make offerings to old trees did have dreams about lottery numbers and they got their winnings. Then, they would buy a traditional Thai costume or ‘seven colours cloth’ to offer the tree in appreciation of the good luck. Most Thai people would not dare cutting old trees especially those Bo trees and Banyan trees. That’s why we could spot these overgrown trees by the walls around the cities.

So, I had to report back to my gardener that all the nurseries had sold out her favourite fruit trees! I had a walk around our garden and spotted three sapodilla trees bearing small fruits! I rarely eat fruits which are too sweet so my gardener and her family would enjoy these soft and sweet fruits in a few months’ time. I look forwards to the pomelos and mango trees to bear new fruits in early spring next year. Meanwhile we have better put more organic fertilizer to fatten up these trees! Mother Nature has been very kind to us considering how amateurish gardeners we have been. Praying while watering trees and plants do produce wonderful results!

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#marketfriday created by @dswigle.