In my hometown, in the past, people only grew rice in two crops: summer-autumn crop and winter-spring crop. In the winter-spring crop at that time, people often chose long-term varieties to plant, so people often called it… seasonal rice (seasonal rice). Seasonal rice ripened around Tet (early or mid-December).
On the occasion of Tet, farmers started harvesting rice. At that time, my family was very poor, so during the afternoons or days when we didn’t go to school, my brothers and I went to glean rice to sell to get money to buy Tet items. Gleaning rice was very simple, just bring a small knife to “cut” the remaining rice and a small basket and a bag to carry the gleaned rice home when finished.
When gleaning rice, the gleaner must walk behind the harvester. The rice of the harvest season is tall and when it encounters strong winds, it often lies flat. People must use a sickle (an ancient rice harvesting tool commonly found in the South) to harvest the rice. Harvesting rice with a sickle often leaves behind. The remaining rice stalks stay behind and when the harvester continues to move forward to harvest the rice, we just walk behind them to glean the rice.
Gleaning rice in the spring has its hardships and joys. The hardship is having to stand in the sun, wade through the fields on days when you go gleaning and encounter muddy fields, and your body is exhausted at night. The joy comes from the fruits of honest labor. Or on days when you follow a group of people harvesting rice (mostly from the same village), they feel sorry for you and occasionally intentionally leave a few ears of rice for you to glean. There are days when you glean all day, and a simple lunch is served in the shade. A few raw fish sauces, dried fish, and a few pieces of pickled cabbage. The group of people eat and chat animatedly, interspersed with funny stories, to ease their daily worries.
My mother used her feet to tread the rice bags that my brothers and I collected at home. Then she dried and rolled the rice in the wind to remove the bad grains. Day after day, when she had enough, she would sell them. With the money she earned from selling the collected rice, she would buy new clothes for my brothers and I to go out for Tet.
Another spring is about to come, the scent of spring has reached the countryside. The spring rice crop is harvested by farmers, looking at the golden rice grains shimmering in the midday sun and the bright smiles on the farmers' sunburned faces, we know that this year's crop is bountiful. I silently congratulate those who are hard-working, working day and night.
Nowadays, almost no one gleans rice anymore. The poverty of the past has long since faded away. But every time I see the rice harvest near Tet, memories of the past when my younger brother and I went gleaning rice in the spring suddenly come back...
TRAN THANH NGHIA
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