A bonus from my tree planting
‘Twas a first sight that warmed my heart,
And gave my day quite a happy start,
Birds of the specie thought to be vanishing,
Indulge in the Bugnay that’s flourishing.
That is a crude attempt at poetry, a form of expression I have no talent in. I wanted to write a poem, not an article, on the first time I saw a pair of Alimukon in my small property in Barangay Paril until I realized I was just rambling. The pigeons were pecking the fruits of the Bugnay trees I planted few years ago. The scene was gratifying. When I was still nurturing the seedlings, I envisioned that one day, Alimukon, Manatad, Punay, and Tokmo, among other bird species, would descend upon my land. When that happened yesterday, I initially felt more poetic than philosophical. The first lines I wrote flowed. But, when I reread what I expressed, I found out I was rather a fool of a failed poet. An oft-quoted line of Joyce Kilmer’s poem, partly on trees, came back to me. “Poems are made by fools like me but only God can make a tree.”
When I acquired this lot in Barangay Paril, just to help a friend in dire financial straits, it was desolate. Perhaps, my lack of real intention to own it heightened its depressed appearance. The former owners said their attempts to cultivate it failed. That was something I couldn’t understand because the soil testing I commissioned showed the land wasn’t absolutely barren. Oh yes, not totally parched as there were bushes here and there and few Gmelina and other trees. Also, I noticed no birds of the species I wanted to see in the mountains. It projected emptiness.
My childhood love for nature got rekindled. I decided to turn its drab environs around and started nurturing fruit trees and hardwood while clearing the land. I particularly focused on Mabolo because I learned that its lumber, known locally as Kamagong, is a sinker of a hardwood, so hard it’s quite difficult to drive a nail through. I remembered that in my grandfather’s century-old ancestral home, built mostly of Magkuno and Tugas, there were pieces of exquisite Kamagong furniture. I imagined that my own children and grandchildren would have their hardwood to build their homes with.
In recent times, minor environmental concerns have worsened. We suffer from rampaging floods more often than in recorded history. In the past, floods only occurred after days of constant heavy rainfall, while today an hour of rain can inundate our streets. Environmentalists claim deforestation is among the most proximate causes. They posit that waters run down from elevated areas with mud and rocks since there are no more trees to hold and contain them and they implore everyone to plant trees whenever and wherever they can.
It was more coincidence than design that I have been doing what environmentalists want us to do. Not knowing the benefits of planting trees other than the expectations that my family will have such materials as Kamagong and Tugas, I exerted efforts to plant trees and still more efforts seeing to it that they survive, for I was told that within three years from planting, young trees may wither. A bonus has dawned on me. The Mabolo that I have grown (and there are more than 200 of them now) and more or less similar number of Tugas, make my immediate environs in the mountains more refreshing. By the way, I took time to plant other fruit trees as Avocado, Bugnay, Caimito, Chico, and Macopa, for my family’s consumption. This bonus emboldens me to ask our city officials to include in their program of government an honest-to-goodness reforestation.
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