My mother-in-law is a durian farmer. She lives in a kampong in Sarawak. Why do I mention her? She has been the single most important influence in my life when it comes to my love for plants, and my love for durian. She actually knows a lot more about plants than I do.

Ancestral trees in the Sarawak “kebun” are generally Durian (Durio zibethinus), and two other important species:

Engkabang (Shorea macrophylla) - which has a nut which yields a quality edibile oil.

Tapang (Koompassia excelsa) a huge tree in which bees make their nests in the forks, a source of honey.

Some of these trees were planted by ancestors 200-300 years ago, and are revered by people like my mother-in-law, together with the memory of the ancestor in some cases. They are also revered for the cash they bring in. One Durian hantu (Durio graveolens) tree can yield 200 fruits and these sell for at least RM$5.00 each in Kuching.

Kondeng my brother-in-law, up in a forest Rambutan tree (Nephelium lappaceum)

Moses my Godson takes a rest from carrying fruit down the mountain.

Recently a huge 200 year-old ancestral Durian tree died in the forest, and my mother-in-law mourned its passing. Her natural response was to take a seedling she had raised from the tree, and plant it in the huge void left by the crashing down of the giant. Did she do it because the government told her to do it? Did she do it because she felt the loss of income? Did she do it so as to mitigate the effects of forest clearance and climate change? No, No, No! She did it because it was the right thing to do.

Can Community in Bloom achieve a gardening culture in Singapore, where our “ancestral” tree are afforded the same level of respect, and our natural response to a “huge void left by the crashing down of the giant” is to plant something to grow in the gap? I think we can. I think that deep within all of us is a little something, which reminds us of the part that we can play in making our city more livable.

Remember the Latin : “Nature magistra artis“.

Nature rules over art.

God’s creation very definitely rules over man’s creation.

- by Simon Longman

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