What just happened?" I ask aloud, shaking my head to dispel the fog
clouding it.
"Pa?" "Honey!" I called out for my husband. "Paaaa!" I shouted, my voice slicing through the stillness, desperation lacing each syllable.
Silence hung in the air, a hea...
My eyes squinted at the glare of purple clusters. "Kinsa tong mga baye?" In our native language, I asked Nai Ceri, the gardener.
When I got there, she was standing by the gate handing over some cuttings of the blooming plant to two women around my age and I wanted to know who those women were.
Ever since we moved to this remote and secluded mountain region, I've become suspicious. I start to feel uneasy whenever I see a crowd of onlookers gathering outside our front gate.
All this worrying has made me old! And the thought got me grumpier. Don't they have anything else to do rather than gather around my gate?
"That should always be kept closed shut," I told her, pointing at the gate, irritation obvious in my raised voice,
"Walaah," oh, it's nothing, she replied in a pacifying tone. "Na ngayo rah sila ug tambal ning aning tanom," And that they were only asking for some cuttings of this medicinal plant, she said, picking out the trimmings of the vine from the ground to show me.
"Kay magpatambal sila ni Ayu Indah." They want Ayu Indah to heal them, she further explained like an afterthought before walking away from me towards the backyard.
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Growing wild and prolific around the area of our property is a flowering vine that never seems to stop creeping and climbing. It spread over the bluff and encircled our pergola, as if it were attempting to embrace the entire garden.
When it bloomed, its purple flowers were glorious clusters all over its stems. Bunches of it overpowered its shiny dark green oval-shaped leaves in cascading garlands.
It was brazened, showing off to the sun. Flaunting itself, coiled and trailing around the balustrade, up to our second-floor balcony. It twisted around the house's columns until its tiny tendrils reached up to the ceiling.
It kept on, like it was attempting to touch the sky.
I noticed that unlike most flowers that usually wilt and drop, this vine's purple clusters fade in color. From lilac to lavender, to shades of pink, and then finally turning a solemn white after a few days.
The variegated shades gave its clustered blossoms the impression of a watercolor painting. Transforming our drab stone walls and rocky slopes into something charming and picturesque.
"How graceful," I once remarked when I saw it bloom for the very first time.
I soon grew fond of these ever-flowering creepers and instructed Nai to encourage this "sagbot" orforest weed to spread in our garden.
Wait a minute, now she claims that this vine is a healing herb!
Well, why didn't she mention this to me before? What is it used for anyway?
Curious, I went after her.
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