When we have too much of something, we tend to take them for granted and believe they would last forever. Then, one day something happens to topple all the things that we are used to having in abundance, only then did we begin to value what we took for granted. That’s what did happen to our papaya trees a few years ago.
It started as if by good luck, my old friend gave me a very nice papaya telling me that this was from her cousin’s farm in the province. The papayas from this small farm were all reserved by a five star hotel’s chefs. So, I collected all the seeds and told my gardener to plants as many papaya trees as possible. Around the same time, I bought a nice looking papaya which tasted very good. So, another type of papaya trees were grown from these seeds.
We could not believe our luck as these two types of papaya trees were so prolific in giving us so many big papayas. These became a big hit among local villagers who kept ordering more papayas everyday. I remembered my gardener had to use several buckets to collect these papayas from around the garden. My gardener was making lots of pocket money everyday and we had unlimited raw papayas for making papaya salad and ripe ones for dessert. Life was so good and I thought these papaya trees would last forever.
Then, one day sudden flood hit the area along the river as the newly built dam in Laos bursted! The water level came up very fast and the whole area was flooded for three weeks. Villagers had to use rowing boats instead of motorbikes and trucks. So, we lost all the papaya trees as they were standing in flood water for three weeks. Luckily the house has been spared by a few inches, but the automatic door unit was damaged by the flood.
We surveyed the garden and realised we lost all our fantastic papaya trees. They had looked after us in terms of nourishment and saving some money for two years. All the banana trees were badly affected by the flood and we had to plant new ones later on. I kept some papaya seeds whereas my gardener did not save any seeds, thinking they would still bear fruits for several years. I felt so sad and bad seeing these beautiful trees dying around the place. That was a big lesson I learned that year; I should never take things for granted and value these simple and humble papaya trees more. Saving seeds is very important for sustainable future. In the long run, I would like to have a small green house for growing fruit trees and plants that do not like their roots soaking in water too much. We have planted new papaya trees but the results are not as good as the original papaya seeds. However, I am very grateful to these wonderful new papaya trees that continue to provide for our well-being and livelihood.
นอกจากต้นกล้วยที่เราชอบมาก และปลูกไว้ในสวนแล้ว เรายังได้ปลูกต้นมะละกอไว้หลายต้น เราชอบกินส้มตำและมะละกอสุกเป็นของหวาน เราโชคดีมากที่เพื่อนที่ทำงานให้มะละกอเรามาหนึ่งลูก และบอกว่าเขาไปเอามาจากสวนของญาติที่ต่างจังหวัด มะละกอพันธุ์นี้พิเศษมากและผลผลิตของสวนนี้ถูกจองโดยพ่อครัวจองโรงแรมห้าดาวที่ริมทะเล เราก็เก็บเมล็ดมะละกอไปให้คนสวนปลูกรอบที่ ในเวลาช่วงเดียวกันเราได้ซื้อมะละกอมาลูกหนึ่ง มีรสดีมากและเนื้อแน่น เราก็เก็บไปให้คนสวนปลูกเช่นกัน ทำให้ตอนนั้นเรามีมะละกอกินทุกวัน และคนสวนก็ได้ขายมะละกอเก็บเงินค่าขนมได้ทุกวัน เราดีใจมากที่ได้มะละกอพันธุ์ดีมาก
แล้ววันหนึ่งเขื่อนใหม่ที่ลาวแตกทำให้มีน้ำไหลทะลักลงมาตามแม่น้ำโขง ทำให้บ้านเรือนที่อยู่อาศัยตามริมแม่น้ำโดนนํ้าท่วมถึงสามสัปดาห์ ที่ริมแม่นํ้าและใกล้เคียงก็โดนน้ำท่วมนานเหมือนกัน พอน้ำลงเราก็สำรวจสวนเพื่อดูความเสียหาย เราเศร้ามากที่เห็นต้นมะละกอตายหมดเลย ต้นกล้วยก็เริ่มเหลือง เราต้องมาตามรื้อต้นกล้วยเพื่อปลูกใหม่ในภายหลัง โชคดีที่เราเก็บเมล็ดพันธุ์มะละกอไว้ จึงให้คนสวนปลูกใหม่ แต่ผลออกมาสู้รุ่นแรกไม่ได้ เมล็ดอาจจะกลายพันธุ์หรือดินอาจจะไม่ดีเหมือนเดิม แต่เราก็ยังมีมะละกอรสชาดเหมือนรุ่นก่อนแม่ปลจะเล็กกว่ามากก็ตาม เรารู้สึกขอบใจต้นมะละกอมากที่ยังออกลูกให้เรามีกินมีใช้ และช่วยให้เรามีชีวิตแบบเศรษฐกิจพอเพียงต่อไปได้
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay warm and strong!
#thaiphotocontest75 on tree photography by @thaiteam.
We appreciate your work and your post has been manually curated by @redheadpei on behalf of Amazing Nature Community. It will be added to the weekly botany curation post. Keep up the good work
Thank you very much for your wonderful support.
Welcome @kaminchan. My pleasure.
💐🌹🌸🙏🐈🐈😻
Very sorry for the trees and the labor that was spent in them. I like papaya. I was in Cuba, where it grows in abundance. Ripe and delicious
Thank you very much for your understanding. Yup! I lost quite a bit of money and hours of work and time. But that’s natural consequences of prolong flooding. This taught me some lessons.
Cheers.
But if everything was good and smooth, Life would be bland and uninteresting...
Sometimes we like bland life style!! LoL
Oh, Yes! But these are only wishes. It doesn't happen that way..
This is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Lush fruit trees. I may never see a papaya tree again. Those ones are much larger than what we buy here. Wow!
Congratulation!
Thanks for your enthusiasm! I always get extra energy whenever I am around nice fruit trees! I am sure you’ll travel again one day to Thailand. You could help me with gardening while having your relaxing holiday! So, you could grow some papaya trees yourself! LoL
What a lovely thing to imagine yes!!!!
Stay strong and cheerful! You need good body and mind for long distance traveling! LoL
I love taking photos of these trees! One of my neighbors has it but it did not yet have any papaya. The leaves though look amazing!
So sorry to hear what the flood did to the trees.. Perhaps you could try again but this time buying small papaya plants and not seeds? It seems you already have yourself a buying audience!
Thank you very much for your sympathy. We are growing new papaya trees from my old seeds and from my friend’s stock. The soil needs more organic fertiliser.
I hope you have some help with cleaning the mud and the house, including the car. Hope the rain has stopped causing difficulties for people.
Take care.
Oh! You have plenty of papayas in your garden. They are really big indeed. Your last photo is my most favorite; the bright blue sky and the huge white clouds are wonderful. ;)