Cu4tro Cantos

Another part of my childhood, I am sharing with you now. This part is called, ‘The Coco Fruit’. From the most useful tree, ‘The Coco Tree’… that bears the largest nut, ‘The Coconut‘. Well, one of the largest nuts.

One of our favorite hangout during weekends, apart from the dust and sea, is the top of the coco tree. We don’t have our own coconut farm; just trying our luck on some others farms. One of our favorite target is Kakang Bina’s farm.

Why?

It’s just exciting because he used to always chase us with his very Big bolo whenever he sees us getting fresh buko from his farm.

‘Ka Bina is an old man, a relative, but not very close. It’s like, He’s a friend of one of the cousins of my grandmother’s friend. Well, in Batangas, everyone in the Barangay treat themselves as relatives (kamag-anak). And I believe that everyone there are relatives. Like with chickens, iisang-pisa.

Being on that young age, 4-5 yo, we still never know what is right or wrong. What we only know was that no one owns that farm. That is free for all. And besides, we were like just playing. Everything we were doing were part of a game.

After all, I miss that adventure. At that very young age, we already know how to peel a fresh buko using a bolo. We know how to make a portable spoon out of it’s husk. We also know how to make a hole on it so you can drink its fresh water. ‘The Buko Juice’. After drinking all the juice all the way down, we know how to split the buko apart in one single strike of a heavy bolo.

And I’m gonna teach you how to do what I was talking about at the previous paragraph. Without visual illustration.

1. Hold the buko from its top part. (figure out which is the top)
2. Get the bolo and strike the buko, about an inch from the other end, not too hard so that the bolo will not pass trough the other end.
3. Tear the part that you struck and you already have a spoon to be used for eating the buko meat easily.
4. Then continue striking on its husk until you see the nutshell.
5. Make a hole on that nutshell using the bolo and drink its fresh juice.
6. After drinking, hold the buko again on the ground, facing the top part to you. The buko has 3 rounded sides, so make sure that one of the corners is at the top.
7. Strike the buko with the bolo. Make sure that your strike will land at the center. And also make sure that you apply enough force to split them in one strike. In case they did not split in one, you have to strike it again on the first crack. Experts know how to easily hit it on the same spot.
8. After the buko has split in two, you can use your portable spoon to scoop and eat the fresh buko meat.
9. Enjoy your fresh buko.

Next time I will teach you how to climb a Coconut Tree.

Time for Batanguño words…

1. palapa n. - the entire coconut leaves including the stem.
2. uyo n. - the petals of a coconut flower. its shape is like a boat.
3. mura n. - buko. young coconut.
4. paklang n. - man made steps on the coconut tree.

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