In July, it is steaming hot. Hiding in the air-conditioned room, I dare not go out, and I accidentally found someone drying wild melons in my circle of friends. The round fruit has a small peduncle at the tail, and the abdomen is pink, slightly darker upward, mixed with some small spots.
Wild sweet potato appeared on the hillside in memory with familiar intimacy. Wild sweet potatoes are tied to vines, and there are long oval leaves distributed on the vines, which are very thick, like very dark leaves. They crawled on the ground and were tied into a long rope.
These wild lianas have strong vitality and often grow on slopes or steep slopes of the land. Farmers are often worried that the people they are looking for will trample the crops in the field, so they shovel the vines with hoes. Even if they die, they are still valuable. After being thrown into the kitchen hall, the rice in the pot will also be wrapped by its aroma.
Hiding in the ground, vines that have not been completely dried, drooping their heads in the soil. Maybe there are some unfinished dreams, and it lies there quietly. When it sleeps for a while, a few drops of rain will wake it up. After drinking enough water, it stretched out its little green hand on the vine and gently waved to its partners, as if to tell them, "I'm awake, wait for me."
Wait until the next year, they climbed the slope quietly. Perhaps to prevent the farmer's hoe, its vines spread around like a big green net. It no longer exposes itself ostentatiously, but secretly pushes away the weeds around it and covers its head as a cover.
In a few days, I will bear good fruit and wait for a pair of hands to pick it. You can't eat the first fruit. Slowly absorbed the nutrients in the soil, turned red with the pedicle, turned pale and pink, became transparent and cooked to eat.
The process of growth and maturity of wild sweet potato is silent, so we don't pay attention to it. Just singing the ballad "June 6th, the sweet potato is ripe", pulling my fingers, looking forward to the arrival of the lunar calendar in June.
Most fruits are hidden in the soil, so you need to gently open the leaves and scrape off the soil attached to the surface to see them. There are also a few impatient fruits that expose their mature and full bodies to the ground and can be hit directly by opening leaves.
Excited, we peeled off the vine leaves, picked the fruit and gently put it into the plastic bag we brought. Occasionally pick up a few fleshy fruits to satisfy your appetite. Wipe off the dirty things and throw them into your mouth. Sweet juice fills the gap between your teeth. The hillside in front of us is also covered with sweetness and joy.
It wasn't until his pocket couldn't hold any more that he invited his companion to send the treasure he had found.
Wild sweet potato is a master of nostalgia. It was found here this year and will be found here next year. And after a year of growth, its territory is still expanding outward.
Children in the country often run on slopes, and they know it like the back of their hands.
In addition to these places that are often planed, we will also visit other places where sweet potatoes and vines grow. As long as you see its rattan leaves, whether it is a cliff or a steep slope, you must go and find out.
I remember one year, wild sweet potatoes grew very well. My sister and I sneaked out at noon, only dug a few places, and the bamboo baskets we brought were full. Seeing that I am going to school, I have to carry the fruits of victory home.
Leave some for your family, and pack the rest for school and share with your classmates.
Watching them grab the wild watermelon and throw its round body into their mouths, their faces were covered with sweet smiles, and my heart was full of joy. Little me, I tasted the joy of sharing for the first time.
Besides wild melons, there are many delicious wild fruits in the countryside. There is a tree with small leaves and branches, which will bear a small fruit called milk seed. It is said that it is named because the fruit is like milk during lactation.
Its fruit is very small, with an oval top and a rose-colored stalk. The juice secreted by the body is as white as milk. Pick a leaf, or break a branch, and the broken wound will gush out white milk like milk, sticky to the touch, white and light but sticky like snow floating in the air in winter.
Although the tree grows short, like a small sapling, it bears many fruits early. The first fruit is green, and there is a rose-red pedicle on the oval head. The fruit grows slowly and the color is slowly painted yellow. When the fruit is ripe, its body turns red.
When I grow up, I will go to my grandmother's house. Walking along a country road, I inadvertently looked up and found a small red figure on the cliff. Looking closely, I found a milkweed tree growing there. When I am happy, I can't help climbing from the side. The moment I took it off, joy filled my heart. Put it in your mouth and the familiar sweetness in your memory will spread.
I remember finding a tall goat milk tree on the cliff in front of my hometown. Red goat milk is like a small lantern. Trembling and burning in the green leaves. This makes us often sneak a look. My father was worried about our safety, so he simply cut down the tree and picked all the fruits for us to avoid future troubles.
The skin of goat's milk is very thin, like a transparent film, tightly wrapped in bright red pulp. The pulp is squeezed into a narrow film, and the juice expands quickly and bursts and overflows.
Now when I go back to the countryside occasionally, I can't help but miss those delicious wild fruits. So, I went to the hillside to find them.
After many years' absence, I found them again, just like seeing an old friend I haven't seen for years. Back in time, I was a little boy in my hometown. ...
If the memory does not disappear, time will never grow old. May you and I be childlike and grow old like teenagers.