Sitting in your old purple van,
eating hard coconut candy
was one of my most
blissful days in life.
Why hard coconut candy?
It seems I only know a fraction
of the ones who planted within me
immense love and care.
Love and care felt by your family,
whom you both
nurtured shoulder to shoulder.
A couple alone on this island,
to take care of,
and plant a family of seven.
A family of seven soon multiplied,
from two, to seven and now,
almost fifty.
I can only imagine how proud you
both must be,
to see the fruits of your labour
harvested, shared, and some
using this fertile soil,
to plant their own trees.
Trees and their roots are inseparable.
And I constantly find opportunities
to unearth my roots.
Photos of togetherness, decades
before I met you both.
Songs you might enjoy.
Stories of a
pair toiling, struggling
to till the land, cultivate the crops,
and feed a generation
that you both may never
get to meet.
Stories of sacrifice,
compassion
hardship, bravery.
Stories which
give those photos a voice, a
personality which I knew only
a fraction of.
And yet in this fraction which I knew,
I would always reminisce chewing
that hard coconut candy,
in your old purple van.
Illustration by Izza Haziqah (Instagram: @hellohazi)