RETRIBUTION

Nestled in the lush and tranquil serenity of a stretch of sandy lowland at the fringe of Siglap was once the Jalan Sintan kampong (village). About eighty attap (roof made from coconut leaves) houses were sparely located among the myriad coconut, mango, rambutan, papaya, banana, jackfruit, soursop, pineapple, guava trees, sugarcane, edible roots and plants. The lean and tall coconut trees were mostly bent almost 30-45 degrees with age. Some of the trees which could not withstand the ravages of the torrential rain and raging winds from the nearby sea had snapped into two. Their stumps were gentle reminders to the village folks that their fragile attap homes had been protected from Mother Nature by these unobtrusive natural guardians for decades. Access into the close-knit village was through a narrow hardened mud path that barely allowed a large lorry to maneuver in.