God's gift

Gift from god
When i was young, to be exact when i was nine and above after dad's business colapse , life was very hard , we survive mainly
on food from nature. we got the protein from fish that we caught from nearby bendang or taliair.Vegies from nearby bush.
Things that always made mum worried was what if we run out of rice, sugar and salt.The rest , we can always found it somewhere
around.
One of my favorite vegetable was / is pucuk pulut musang as my mother call it.My fathers kampung folk used to call it kerak
nasi or kerak-kerak nasi.It is a small plant, so much resemble to a very popular ornamental plant, chinese evergreen. Infact
, the first time i saw the chinese evergreen i thought it is the pulut musang plant and until now i still wonder, whether the
young shoot of the chinese evergreen can turn into a very delicious and mouth watering vegetable as the pucuk pulut musang
is.Never dare to try, perhaps i should i try it... who knows...:)
the part from the plant that can be cook is the young shoot.My mother used to cook it into a very delicious soup.She pounded
the black paper, grilled fish, shallot and garlic together. While pounding the ingridient, she told us the story when she was
young.My mum is the youngest among her siblings.When she was young she used to follow her father travel from place to place,
open new land, in the jungle.Along her journey she learnt many thing about various kind of plants which she always told
me.That's how i develop my interest in herbs and plant.My mum is like a walking plant library for me.
back to the delicious soup.After pounding the ingridient, she boiled it with water until the vegetable got tender.Any other
sayur kampung cannot challenge the sweetness of the plant.
recently when i visit one of my herbs collector, the pakcik show me this plant which he call pecah kelambu, i've saw a few
plant that is called pecah kelambu befor.Some even call galak tua (stemona tuberosa) as pecah kelambu too. but this one
really rang a bell in me.After more than 15 years i never see this plant , it is really like a deja vu for me. It's like you
see an old good friend...hehehe... too much? but that's how i feel...The pakcik told me ... this plant should be the woman
best companion.. why? because it is very beneficial to increase woman sexual desire ...(hahhhhh alamak , really??? , i have
ate so much of this plant during my young days, is there any side effect?) especially for the elder woman. the effect,
according to him is almost the same as kacip fatimah (No wonder the fruit looks almost the same...any direct relation? dont know...
:P)
Then, a litle chat with dad also gave me knowledge that this plant also can cure hemarrhoid(buasir).According to dad , one of
my aunt recovered from her severe hemarrhoid after drink the soup everyday for a few weeks.HOOOO.... it's so beneficial... i
never know...the only thing that i knew last time is it tasted good.
so i grab a few bags an try to nurture it in my garden.One thing about this plant is you can never expose it to the direct
sunlight.In a few days it will....die.You need to grow it under the shade or under a tree as the original habitat is in the
bush.
The great thing that i should always remember is Allah is great, with HIS Love and guide we (me and my siblings) grow up
healthily and happily during the very hard time in our life.Alhamdulillah.No matter how far we go or how many types of food
we eat, the food that give us life is always the most delicious food ever.
enclose is the picture of the plant botanically know as Terenia polygonaides