Feed what you want to grow because what you feed is what grows – a short story.
Kean is a warm child who loves the cuddling of his dad. He’d often go to the farmland with him, not to work but to play around with the insects. Although on coming home whenever Mommy asked how the day went, Kean will cut in to answer for himself and Juarbe, his dad.
‘Darling, how was the day, and how are the crops doing? I hope they’re coming up well because I’m counting on their sales for Kean’s tuition next term.’
Kean didn’t wait for the last words to leave his mom’s mouth before he jumped out excitedly, ‘Mama, we worked really hard. While Dad was weeding the farm, I was chasing away all the insects that wanted to eat the yam. The insects were so huge that if I allowed them, they’d eat up the yam tendrils and we won’t have any money to eat and pay for Mommy’s drugs.’
‘Kean my son, I am fine,’ Tem said, smiling as she held her son’s hands. ‘I only had a slight headache for a few days and so couldn’t come with you. I have taken some drugs, and everything is good now. When the time of harvest comes, we’ll go together.’
‘For now, when you go with Daddy to the farmland, help him while he is weeding, all right? Make sure you learn those tricks he uses to scare the birds because they’ll be important for you when you become rich and have many farmlands, ok?’ Tem continued.
‘All right, Mom, I will look after Daddy next time and learn.’ Kean responded.
‘That’s good my son. But I didn’t mean you should look after Daddy. I meant that you should look at him and do whatever he asks you to do. So, you’ll learn and become a verrryy biiiigg man tomorrow.’
‘Okay, Mom. I will learn.’
While this mini stage drama unfolded, Juarbe watched in admiration. He’s always fascinated looking at this gorgeous damsel he married 12 years ago. His favourite moment of the day is whenever Tem, as he fondly calls her, is engaged in a semi-serious conversation with Kean their only child. They had waited and prayed for 5 years before Kean came.
Before Kean, they had lost two conceptions to miscarriage and those years were really painful. When Tem was pregnant with Kean, Juarbe promised himself that he’d do everything in his power not to see his wife go through the same trauma she went through the previous times.
Those years were really traumatic for them as he saw life literally leaving his wife. He couldn’t stand it. His encouraging words seemed like water poured on an eggshell – impenetrable and lacking any soothing effects on her; Tem couldn’t be consoled. So, when Kean was in the womb, Juarbe took over everything chores in the house. ‘Tem, I know that this one is going to stay. The Lord told me that last night, so, don’t worry, we will have this one,’ he always told his lovely wife.
The gestation period was not without its issues, but in the end, Kean was born to the pleasure of God and the happiness of the home. Tem recovered quite well and returned to be the sweet damsel that caught Juarbe’s wandering eyes that day at the marketplace. Yes, you read that right.
The story of how they met is actually a bit funny – Juarbe had returned from the city where he lived with his uncle to visit his ageing parents. He is from the Nazare community but had travelled to stay with his uncle seeing they could not train him in higher education.
So, after his secondary school studies, his parents contacted the uncle who lives in Hefei. Juarbe was asked to go live with him, peradventure he could learn a trade that’ll enable him to help his family. Juarbe agreed, but not without some pains, to leave his parents for the city – a sacrifice that must be made if he would have a better future than his parents had.
So, on this glorious day, as Juarbe always recalls, he had returned home but needed to prepare yam pottage for the night. He needed to have a taste of yam after several months of eating Bifanas and Francesinhas in the city. He was tired of the city food and needed something villagey, and yam was it- his favourite.
It was getting dark, so he quickly dashed out for the local Nazare market. On getting there, he was frantically searching for the yam when the main Yam he wasn’t searching for appeared in the dark, lighted by the glowing low voltage electric bulb. But the fact that he wasn’t searching for this particular Yam didn’t make her less desirable. In fact, that was the end of the search – his hunger ceased.
But it was a bit dark, and his parents were at home alone. So, he simply beamed a smile to this glowing damsel, purchased some tubers of yam and ran home. He would return the following day, and the day after, and after until he finally got to meet Tem. And the rest of what happened afterwards is left for your imagination. And by way, Tem isn’t her original name, it’s just a fond name that Juarbe gave her, meaning ‘my yam’ in their local tongue.
‘Mommy Kean, você não vai me servir comida?’ (won’t you serve me food?) Juarbe said in their local dialect. ‘Whenever you’re gisting with your son, you forget that you have a husband.’ He said smiling.
‘Abe, you know where the kitchen is. You know what food we have, and you even know how many pieces of meat we have in that pot of soup. My dear, serve yourself while I discuss important issues with my sweet young man. I hope you’re not jealous?’ Tem said smiling as she went walked to the kitchen.
Several weeks has passed since that little Mom -Son chats with Kean. And it seemed that the motherly counsel produced the desired effect as Kean started learning a few things each time he went to the farmland with his father.
On this faithful day, they were passing by a farm close to theirs. Kean has observed that the crops on that farm seemed to be doing very poorly compared to theirs. The crops were the same, the soil same, weather conditions same, but the yields would be so different from theirs. So, after some days of this startling observation, Kean decided that he needed answers.
‘Dad, why are the crops in Mr Santiago’s farm doing poorly compared to ours?’ He asked.
‘It’s because of weeds son; it’s because of a lot of weeds.’ Juarbe answered.
‘Ah ok. I see there are a lot of weeds around the yams.’ Kean acknowledged.
‘Yes, son. The weeds are harming the crops. Also, Mr Santiago travelled, so no one is coming to weed the farm for him.’ Juarbe said.
‘Maybe we should tell him so that he will call labourers to help weed the farm for him.’ Kean added.
‘Yes, we should. The weeds need to be removed; else he won’t harvest much at harvesttime.’ Juarbe concluded
As they walked to their portion of the land, Juarbe thought, as any parent, that he could use this opportunity to teach his son a few life lessons. So, he said: ‘My son, in life there will be many weeds that would want to grow around your crops. They want to compete for the nutrients available in the soil with your crops. And sometimes, they have a growth pattern that would strangle your crops too. They’re also more resistant to the weather conditions compared to your crops. You have to be careful with them and take them out as soon as they begin to germinate. If you allow them to grow for long, it may become difficult to weed them out without damaging your crops.’
‘That’s true Dad’. Kean nodded in agreement.
‘Also, my son, whatever you want to grow, make sure you water and fertilise it. What you don’t take care of will not grow properly. If there’s any crop you want to make gain from tomorrow, water it today, fertilise it and constantly guard it against birds and rodents that prey on it. Guide the tendrils like the tendrils of the yam and let it grow without the disturbances of the weeds. And you’ll be happy at the time of harvest when your baskets will be filled with much produce.’
‘Thank you, Dad; that’s such a great lesson. Thanks for teaching me.’ Kean said.
‘All right, my son, it’s time to work before the sun rays get hot and beat our back. And remember that Tem is preparing roasted yam with veggies for lunch. That should be an extra motivation.’ Juarbe winked.
‘Daddy, whenever we’re having yam, you seem very happy. Why?’ Kean quizzed
‘You know why my son. You know…’ Juarbe grinned.
