A little something from what I wrote this Pandemic Season

Who Else Grew Up in the Island?

The Philippines

As a child, i was carefree and adventurous. I grew up in a small town, by the purple shores in the south of Panay Island in the Philippines.  Once upon a time in history, the ecoregion was almost completely forested and harbored some of the highest levels of endemism, but when greed prevailed, it lost all of its grandeur, and many of its species no match against human-lit inferno, went extinct and vanished for eternity. It was said that nowhere in the country was environmental degradation quite so acute, but despite the obvious chronicity of the issue, it never was pressing enough for anybody to really give a damn. Nothing is perennial, nor evergreen, i guess.

The island was my playground. After a whole day of escapade, my hair would smell sour and pungent as a palm wine and salty as the tropical wet air. There were afternoons that i have spent alone, digging schists and ultramafics from the muddy sundaic earth with my barehands, and there were nights i have spent by the shore with older friends, firing carbon-carbide fueled bamboo cannons. The next day they were my worst enemies, the empty beach was our battlefield, and at each other we threw moist clumps of sand, until we were friends again. As an adult, i am careful rather than carefree and has become more adventurous.

To be continued....