IT’S dates time in date fruit land. Those still unripe fruits that are firmly clumped in the leaf bases of the palm trees look so insanely tempting already that you can’t blame these adolescent boys who stealthily attempt to shake these off their spines. Makes me wonder what an unripe date fruit would taste. I’m only familiar with the sweet, caramel-like taste and texture of the fruit that’s being bought at the supermarket that I have no idea how a fresh one would be.
I amusingly observe and then got instantly reminded of how we were as kids back home. It’s the same thing with those guava, persimmon and misperos or loquat trees that grew in front of lolo’s cogon house. Regardless if the fruits were ripe or not, it made us giddily joyful climbing the rickety branches to pick those obviously immature fruits. The rewards for doing such would be a small bounty of hard, sour fruits that we unhesitatingly indulge into. The aftermath would be constipation (from the rock-hard guavas that our chipped molars had no trouble biting into) and numerous welts from the dreaded “budo-budo” or wooly caterpillars. We’re lucky if we can escape the serious reprimands from our elders for acting like George of the Jungle in those unstable branches of the old trees.
I amusingly observe and then got instantly reminded of how we were as kids back home. It’s the same thing with those guava, persimmon and misperos or loquat trees that grew in front of lolo’s cogon house. Regardless if the fruits were ripe or not, it made us giddily joyful climbing the rickety branches to pick those obviously immature fruits. The rewards for doing such would be a small bounty of hard, sour fruits that we unhesitatingly indulge into. The aftermath would be constipation (from the rock-hard guavas that our chipped molars had no trouble biting into) and numerous welts from the dreaded “budo-budo” or wooly caterpillars. We’re lucky if we can escape the serious reprimands from our elders for acting like George of the Jungle in those unstable branches of the old trees.