Ang Mangga ni Mona (Mona’s Mango)

I had a best friend in elementary named Mona. One day, after a week-end in their farm in Zambales she brought me back a gigantic Indian mango. I am an indifferent gardener, but I was some how blessed with a green thumb. From the seed of that fruit I was able to bring up a gigantic tree that now stands majestically in front of our house. But not for long.

The chico (sapodilla) tree beside Mona's tree took twenty years before it bore fruit, living so near the gigantic mango tree wasn't good for it's health and we had to coax it to bear fruit by regularly coaxing a siga (fire) underneath it (this was during the days when it was still allowed to do this and when the neighborhood was not regularly engulfed with smoke from the jeepneys.) Because my mother grew up in the province where your backyard was not measured in square meters but in hectares she is used to being surrounded by fruit trees. I enjoy listening to her and my Auntie Gloring reminisce about their childhood days during the Japanese occupation in the 40's and how the fruits saved them from having to scrounge around for their breakfast. The size of great grandmother's mangoes were enormous and their chico trees yielded fruits the size of soft balls. They would hear the bayawakan (fruit bats) nudging the fragrant fruit where it's weight would do the rest and they would happily feast on it on the rich grass covered ground. I can almost see my mom as a young girl, her mouth and the tips of her fingers all purple from eating the sweet and juicy duhat (black or java plum) that also showered their orchard with such beautiful blooms. Nowadays all that is left of those trees are the memories of my Aunt and my mom and a few trees that came from the seeds of the mother trees planted in the back yard of my cousin's house in Cavite.

Because of a local government project Mona’s tree and all the fruit trees that I planted since the 70's in front of our fence will soon be cut down and the fruits that used to bring back my child hood will now be just a memory. What a waste.