(QBĐT) - “Back then, after school, I would go to the garden to take care of the coriander, onions, and garlic, diligently measuring how big the plants were every day. Then I looked forward to the Sundays when I had a day off from school and would go to the market with my mother. The village market was located by the riverbank, with a very large banyan tree that cast its shade all year round. The “goods” I brought were lush green vegetables in a bamboo basket, while my mother went to the market, I would display them under the banyan tree to sell. The way home after the market was very joyful because the coriander, onions, and garlic that had been sold would be turned into books, notebooks, pens, ink, and sometimes new clothes…”, while stopping at the banyan tree in a strange village, you said!
Like you, I also had a village with a banyan tree, and on days off from school I would bring guava, custard apple, sweet potato cake, and cassava cake to the village hall to sell. Just like the poem in the old textbooks “When I grew up, I saw coconuts in front of the gate…”, none of us kids knew when the banyan tree had been there. My mother and grandmother also shook their heads when asked. So in my free time, I often looked up at the dark green foliage and guessed how old the tree was…
Wholesale at the village market is always fun, even though sometimes there is no money to bring home because we sell this and then buy that. In return, there are endless stories or small joys like this moon, the fishing boats have big catches, if the sea is calm, the holds will be full of shrimp and fish, then our village will soon be rich. Then we ask each other if we will "go to the mountains to plant apricot blossoms" this Tet or plant gladiolus, peonies, how many firecrackers do we plan to burn, how big are the pigs, are they going to sell soon so we can buy Tet clothes...
There are also times when we hear very sad stories like an old person living alone sleeping his last sleep without anyone by his side, luckily a neighbor came to ask and found out. That is the story of Na, the most beautiful woman in the village, who went to the city to visit her sister's house at the beginning of the year but had not returned until Tet. Her letters to Tuan, the person she had planned to marry during Tet, gradually became less and less frequent. Tuan used to play for Na to sing, but now his guitar is covered with dust. Or one stormy day, a small boat did not reach the shore in time, at night the villagers lit a fire on the beach, waiting for the sea to go out to sea in vain...
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Sometimes I think that the banyan trees at the corner of the market, if they have souls and know how to listen, will surely carry in their hearts thousands of sad and happy stories. I and many friends who sold wholesale under the banyan tree of the village market grew up, left the countryside, immersed themselves in the hustle and bustle of the city and the tiring hustle and bustle, sometimes in my dreams I suddenly saw the village market again. Then in the middle of the night I woke up and couldn't help but text my friends to ask how things were these days, whether the fish and shrimp harvest was good; whether Ms. Na got married to a city man and her children were grown, and whether Mr. Tuan had gotten married yet; now that Tet is here, do the villagers still "go to the mountains to grow flowers" or grow gladiolus and peonies?
Then, after many days away and many questions in the middle of the night, one day I returned home and did not see the familiar banyan tree anymore. The village was a new countryside, so the market was also built spaciously in a new place. Children were busy studying, growing up and leaving the countryside for the city, the elderly flocked to the white clouds and the old market was no longer a trace. Where the old banyan tree fell after a big storm, a small banyan tree had just been planted, it would take many more years before it could spread its shade like the banyan tree of my childhood and that of many of my friends…
Although there is a bit of hesitation and loss when the familiar scenery of the past has now changed, but the heart is not too sad, just like my friend's mood when he said that the banyan tree at the riverside is no longer there. Instead, there is a big road and a new bridge. The people of your hometown still take care of the coriander, onions, garlic, still bring them to the market to buy and sell, but the road to the market is no longer too arduous and full of worries!
I secretly think that the old banyan trees must have lived their entire lives with many sad and happy stories witnessed every day. And do the trees know that in the hearts of many children born and raised in the village like you and me, the canopy of that tree is always cool and green, spreading shade? So that after so many years passed with so many hardships, sadness, joy, happiness, meeting the shade of the banyan tree in a strange place, so many old stories suddenly come back, vivid as if it were just yesterday!
Village stories, just like that, forever remain in memory!
Diep Dong
Source: https://www.baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202411/chuyen-lang-2222504/
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