Mango tree

Mango Tree (18th June 2012)

When we moved into our house, my father bought a small mango tree sapling and planted it in front of the car porch. The tree was kind of funny and stubborn maybe.  We didn't get to eat mangoes from that tree until a few years later. After that, depends on the tree’s mood, sometimes it bears fruits, sometimes it don’t. My parents once planned to chop down the tree, but I was against the idea. So, it stayed there. Later, a fungus infection caused most of the leaves to drop, so my father had to trim most of the branches and it became a ‘botak’ tree. The mango tree has a very strong will to live, not long after that, new leaves grew out of the bare branches. That year, we had a bountiful harvest of mangoes. However, due to the heaty effect of the mango, my mom discouraged us to eat. So, I packed many mangoes and gave it to my bosses and colleagues. I was so proud when they said that the mango was very sweet!

(After I came to Japan and tasted the famous Miyazaki mango, I found out that it tasted almost the same with my house’s mango! The only down point for our mango was it was too fibrous.)

Since secondary school, I was so taken with the biodegradable compost thing. So, I would diligently collect the unfinished food, fish bones, peeled skin of fruits, etc to bury under the ground because I believe that those things will degrade eventually. From this, I knew that for the vegetables and fruits, after it degraded, it would give a very fragrant smell. Well, for the meat, the smell was so awful. However, at least it became fertilizer rather than ended up in rubbish dump and emitted methane gas for nothing.

Although the mango tree hasn't bear fruits for a few years, we still keep the tree because it can become a shape before the sunlight enter the living room and keep it cooler.