At that time, not only were there fewer kinds of fruits, but the market demand was also not strong, and there were not many people who bought fruits in the market. In addition to the working class, the family of overseas Chinese, a very few "rich people", the vast majority of farming families, almost all year round can not buy a few fruits, and even never bought the fruit of the family also abound. Sometimes, when relatives come, buy some fruit as a gift, children rarely have the opportunity to eat fresh fruit, to relieve their hunger. However, the commonplace is just sugar cane, guava and a few other things, the price is cheap, the number of good-looking, guests have enough face, the host family a few children enough to share, enough to eat, enough affordable.
By the guests to buy to have fruit to eat, but the guests did not often come, usually want to eat fruit how to do? Fortunately, at that time, the old family almost every house in front of the house are planted fruit trees. There were two guava trees in front of my house, which blossomed and bore fruit every year. I remember my father just planted a row of more than ten lychee saplings next to the house, surrounded by thistles, the saplings were short, weak and braced. I've been looking at them several times a day, morning and evening, looking forward to the saplings growing up, and looking forward to my own growth, waiting for the lychee to blossom is still a very distant dream.
Old home "door Cheng" has two guava trees, growing not too high, I remember, I often climb up and down. The first time I saw a child climbing the tree, in order to be safe, sometimes have to scold a couple of times, criticized the education. See all right, sometimes just let it go. From the time of blossoming, I would guard the fruit tree, looking up at the branches, carefully calculating which one (piece) of "Nafo" would ripen first so that I could pick it and eat it. That kind of imaginative waiting mood is sometimes very subtle, nowadays children will not have that kind of feeling.
The most common fruit in my hometown is guava, almost every family around the house planted guava, even the professional team also planted pieces of guava, a catty is worth a few cents, but also few people buy. The guava is worth a few cents a kilogram, but few people buy it. The old family has a dialect called "eat fruit boy, worship tree head".
The nearest cousin to my house is the family of the colorful uncle, there are two guava trees. The two guava trees grow behind his house, and one grows beside the alleyway that protects his house. These two guava trees have burned deep childhood memories in my heart. The guava tree that grows in the back of the house of the color uncle is the earliest to ripen, but it is not tasty, and there is no special taste when you eat it.
Once, the production team collective labor, to the tree side of the water latrine water picking fertilizer, see the guava ripe, members of the community stopped to pick guava fruit to eat. The first time I saw this, I was able to see the whole world, and I was able to see the whole world, and I was able to see the whole world. Because the ripe guava has been picked by them to eat, the tree is only left uncooked, that time teeth good appetite, I do not know where the strength, but also swallowed a few hard guava in a moment to eat the belly.
Eating time did not feel wrong, to the next day, the stomach began to suffer. The stomach is bloated, can not eat, the stomach is still hidden pain. Can't eat and can't pull out, forehead and hot sweat. This time the parents were anxious, my mother did not scold me, but a strong accusation that so-and-so should not pick those "stinking shit to take Buddha" to me to eat, after all, children do not understand.
Seeing that I was sickly for a few hours did not get better, my parents were more anxious. My mother urged my father to carry me, rushed six or seven kilometers away from the mass hospital to see a doctor. Took some medicine to clean the stomach and intestines back to eat, pulled the stomach for two days, only slowly return to normal.
The guava tree has long been cut down. After growing up, sometimes back home, passing the site of the guava tree, often unconsciously stop in a hurry, where it stood and stared, pondering, some of the childhood memories of the hidden.
The guava tree on the side of the ditch in the alley of Uncle Sam's Nursing Alley, long next to his family's vegetable garden, with plenty of water and fertilizer, grows luxuriantly, every spring is full of a tree with yellowish white flowers, and in the summer, the fruitfulness of the bent upward stretching branches. Sometimes, in the fall under the leaves of the guava, there will be a few sporadic small white flowers, these hidden small white flowers, always be the color uncle's grandson was the first to find, the color uncle's grandson is my age, childhood playmates. Therefore, the color uncle's grandson will be mysteriously whispered to me, and sometimes specially take me to the tree to see. The first time I saw the tree, I was able to get a good look at it, and I was able to get a good look at it.
By the time the guava tree ripens, it's really a "peach and plum" tree. The fruit of this guava tree is commonly known as "ounce Buddha", the shape of the fruit is like "ounce", guava commonly known as "Nafo". "There are two kinds of guava, yellow flesh (yellow heart) and red flesh (red heart). I remember this guava fruit is red meat, when ripe, the fruit has a special flavor, commonly known as "stinky shit Nafo". During my childhood and growing up, I used to eat "Nafo" from this guava tree almost every year at one time or another. This "Nafo" is large, not sour, not astringent, with a faint sweet flavor, as long as you eat two or three will be full will be tired.
The neighbors, my Sam's family also has several guava trees, grew out of the "Nafo" small, red meat, yellow meat, belong to the "middle" taste. The neighbor's "Nafo", ripe time has early and late, the problem is that each guava tree knot out of the "Nafo" taste are not the same, the aroma is not the same, and the nature of the child is to taste different tastes.
The years have changed, the old family guava tree is now almost extinct, some of the reasons are the need to build a house, had to give up love; some are now basically very few people to eat "Nafo", negligent management, allowing it to perish on its own, the natural elimination of; there is also a reason, the childhood of the "Nafo". "Another reason is that when I was a child, I would pick them from the tree and put them in my mouth without washing them, but nowadays, they are all full of worms (except for the guavas that you buy in the market), despite their good appearance. Of course, the reasons may be more than that.
Guava belongs to the tropical fruit, there is a "tomato" word, indicating that from abroad. Checked the "lady", only to realize that its origin in the Americas. English called guava, the old family called "take Buddha", should be the voice translation, because by Southeast Asia and imported into our country, the pronunciation will go out of the way, to our place, it is called "take Buddha".
Now on the market "guava", how can not eat the flavor of childhood. The climate has changed, the soil has changed, the times have changed, the environment has changed, the varieties of "Nafo" have changed, but the memories of my childhood are still clear and unchanged, still alive in my mind.
? (April 28, 2021)