Totog's Plantation

Totog is our tenant. He lives uphill in my wife's property, just some 50 meters behind our house. He and his wife have lived in that quiet small valley when they had only a couple of children. Now, their marriage have been blessed with four boys and a girl, all working though irregularly. Soon, he will be a grandfather by his eldest,

For quite sometime now, he cleared a small area behind our home and planted it with corn. He's aware of the impending shortage of foodstuff so in his own little way, labored to produce some corn for the market. Although he's been blessed with occasional rain the summer breeze and the noonday heat scorched the soil dramatically. Most of the kernels have already sprouted, I saw them one morning some weekend past. But when I made another ocular visit yesterday, I was saddened that the plants have barely grown. Totog complained of the erratic weather. He reported too that most of the area is acidic. Finally, he proclaimed that the kernels were made of lesser stuff.

This morning the rain poured again. The cracked in the soil were almost healed instantly. I imagined that Totog will be happy to note the downpour and forget about the rainless forecast of the PAGASA. I imagined his corns growing steadily in time for the harvest season late in May. I anticipate his joy as he gathers the sweet harvest of his toil.

Tonight, I invited him to a lapad of Tanduay and a dried fried piyagot and encouraged him to talk about his cornfield, his assessment on them, his dreams for the future.