I've had just enough time... to see rice been planted.
Taken in a kampung in Cilegon, Java, Indonesia.
This field
of ripening padi that I took in my visit to Cilegon in Jakarta is no more. It
has been bulldozed over and converted to another factory. All in the name of
progress.
It is easy
for me to say this is bad. That the old way of Life should be preserved. But I
know how difficult it is to walk in deep mud. And how back-breaking it is
planting padi under the scorching tropical sun. And I remembered that nursery
rhyme that I sang as a boy –
“Planting
rice is never fun,
Bend
from morn to set of sun.
Cannot
stand and cannot sit,
Cannot
rest a little bit.”
And I
hesitated and reserved any hasty judgement. And I find the only thing I can
condemn outright is – “poverty is bad”. Progress? It has two faces. But I sure
miss the undulating field of ripening padi dancing to the wind.
