True Kangkong

CEBU, Philippines - Members of the Kangkong Khernitz Club are gathered at the barangay gym. This time, they are to compete in a friendly “rap” competition. This involves the throwing of rhymes at each group, the way rappers would spit poems.

The aim is to raise a point. The goal is to educate young students as to the two types of kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk). There is always the question as to why it is called water spinach or water morning glory when the other kind grows in the upland, not in rivers or waterways and ponds.

Kiko began his poetic lyrics by informing the audience:

Kikay may confuse you in being water spinach

She grows on land like potatoes and peanuts

No broad, blunt leaves the way we wear ours

Her chin is as pointed as a snout of a mouse

The audience roared and gave Kiko a round of applause.

Chinky eyed Kikay stood up to take her turn:

Don't have to live in water to be best kangkong

Upland variety comes perfect with bagoong

We are more preferred as adobos or “apan-apans”

Versatile with bangus not just flashes in a pan

The excitement at the gym even got warmer as a bunch of Chinese kangkongs waved their hands at Kikay and shouted their hurrahs.

Kiko once again took center stage to stress a point:

What's “swamp cabbage” if it amounts to nothing?

Vines are to creep with hollow stems fast growing

Sweet, succulent stalks on wet grounds crawling

Perfect with meat and fish, to our life so enriching

But Kikay had otherwise to tell the public:

Upland kangkongs are richer in iron and calcium

Not contaminated with snails, colony of bacterium

We don't end up as fodder for pigs and cattle

We carry this honor like a knight on a saddle