CHILDHOOD LIVES ON: 1. Through the mist of Time; 2. Angling - Sport in Silence; 3. Waterfalls in My Childhood

CHILDHOOD LIVES ON

"Life is the childhood of our immortality."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Paintings and verses by Dr Abe V Rotor 

1. Through the Mist of Time 

The childhood in us throbs, throbs with the sweet music of time. 

Through the mist of time in acrylic AV Rotor

 

Through the mist we see children

Years back with many years lost;

Yet much is gained in memory

That holds stories untold.

Who is fishing there? Ahoy!

Only the tingling chime answers;

The childhood in us throbs, throbs

With the sweet music of time. ~

2. Angling - Sport in Silence

Fishing, painting in oil by AVRotor 

Silence the test of nerve and steel,

as calm combs the water;

beneath stealth the fish, be still,

and wish the rod to quiver.

When hours are long and hard to bear

and heaven dull and gray;

dreams long delayed are in slumber,

go fishing the whole day.

For no sport more than fishing  brings  

freedom from cares and worries;

 tolls the bell for thee or joy it rings,

fishing in silence and peace. ~

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Miss Grace Velasco 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

3. Waterfalls in My Childhood

Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor

On display at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"I have returned in old age and stood

before my waterfalls to pay homage

with paintbrush and canvas.  Behold!

I painted a scene gentle with age. "

Waterfalls in My Childhood, in acrylic AV Rotor 2026

Waterfalls are nature's living fortress,

their massive walls rise to the sky, 

symbol of strength and daring, and I,

I grew up a disciple as time went by.

Down their cascading waters I rode,

along the river that meets the sea,

to a world strange, unknown, and I,

I looked back, in spite of being free. 

Time and place combine into fate,

into a life travelled but once only, 

a world incognito, infinitum, and I, 

I crossed my Rubicon, a long story.

I have returned in old age and stood

before my waterfalls to pay homage

with paintbrush and canvas. Behold!

I painted a scene gentle with age. ~

“You don’t have the power to make rainbows or waterfalls, sunsets or roses, but you do have the power to bless people by your words and smiles. You carry within you the power to make the world better.” - Sharon G. Larsen

Where have all the wildlife gone?

 Where have all the wildlife gone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Asian tiger, Zoobic, Subic Zambales

I laid down my fishing rod a long time ago,

     and I haven't fired a shot since then, too,

for the wild has shrunk, the places I used to go -

     the shores and forests - now I hardly know.

Where have all the wildlife gone? I think I know;

     I hiked o'er the hill for a bundle of wood,

waded downstream to complete my favored stew,

     progress was unheard of, and life was good.

Is progress taming the wild and farming the seas,

     building golf range on grasslands, houses on fields,

ranches, plantations of crops and forest trees -

     or progress an accident of growing needs?

When Nature becomes spent and overpowered,

      pushed by growing affluence and number,

the wild leaves the world in waste and disorder,

      and a lesson for us all to remember.~

Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin (Endangered Musical Instrument)

  Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin

Annex 1 - A List of Violin Pieces & their Composers

Annex 2 - The Red Violin: Synopsis

                                                         Dr Abe V Rotor

A copy of Stradivarius violin, retired.  

                                          French violin fell into pieces as a result of very old age.  

 

 German violin damaged by powder post beetle, so with its carrying case.  

NOTE: I was able to restore these violins which I still play on them today. Thanks to my mentors in my younger years: Maestro Anselmo Pelayre, Maestro Evaristo Bolante, Uncle Mariano Navarrete, the Rosal brothers: Charito, Elias and Antonio; and contemporary violinist Candido Raquepo. 

Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin

Good bye, violin, you have done well your part;

     your master has long been dead,

you're an orphan now bypassed by modernity,

     and praised in your dying bed.

One virtuoso can play for millions in cyberspace,

     faithful enough to the old school;

the avant-garde musician in many versions dare

     the fine art, we may call him a fool.

Where is Elgar, Schubert, Ravel, Rachmaninoff?

     Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic?

If the masters live forever in their masterpieces,

     why are the youth shy and meek?

Music and noise, they bind, distinction is nil,

     fashion, dance, antics deceive

the senses like Picasso's and Dali's art,

     and the soulful violin to grieve.

I see a young child reach for the keyboard,

     his tender fingers full of promise,

a maestro by his side, survivor of a storm

     returning the music of peace.

                          A List of  Violin Pieces & their Composers

Virtuoso and popular compositions for the beginner and advanced violinist. 
Search on the Internet, listen to the compositions on YouTube, download if possible.  Search for many more compositions for the violin. You can be a violinist. 

1. Bach Chaconne
2. Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata
3. Paganini Caprice No. 1
4. Wieniawski Polonaise No. 1
5. Ysaye Sonata No. 8
6. Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
7. Sibelius Violin Concerto
8. Glazunov Violin Concerto
9. Elgar Violin Concerto
10. Shostakovich Violin Concerto
11. Monti Csardas
12. Brandenburg Concertos, J.S. Bach
13. D Minor Double Concerto, J. S. Bach
14. Four Seasons, Vivaldi
15. Nimrod, Elgar
16. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Mozart
17. Messiah, Handel
18. Watermusic, Handel
19. Pachelbel Canon
20. Second mazurka / Godard –
21. Elegie / Massenet –
22. Salut d'Amour / Elgar –
23. Gipsy dance / Wier –
24. Andante religioso / Thomé –
25. My heart at thy sweet voice / Saint-Saens (Samson and Delilah)–
26. Chaconne / Durand (Op.62)
27. Ballade romantique / Jaggi –
28. Liebestraum / Liszt (S.541)
29. Poupee valsante / Poldini –
30. Murmuring zephyr / Jensen –
31. An den frühling / Grieg –
32. Grande valse brillante / Chopin –
33. Berceuse / Ilyinski (Op.13)
34. Melancolie / Wier –
35. Rain, the / Bohm
36. Fountain, the / Bohm (Op.221)
37. Ave Maria, Franz Schubert
38. Flight of the Bumblebee, Jascha Heifetz / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
39. Liebesfreud, Fritz Kreisler
40. Andante and Variations for violin and piano, Gioachino Rossini
41. Caprice No. 24 in A minor, Op. 1/24 Niccolò Paganini
42. Humoreske, Antonin Dvorák

From MovieWeb

The Red Violin: Synopsis

THE RED VIOLIN chronicles the journey of a legendary musical instrument -- a violin famous for its unusual reddish hue. Placed on the auction block in modern-day Montreal, after traveling around the globe for over three-hundred years, the violin comes to the attention of expert CHARLES MORRITZ (Samuel L. Jackson,) who mounts an investigation to authenticate the enigmatic instrument and establish its true worth.

Created by seventeenth-century Italian master violin-maker NICOLO BUSSOTTI (Carlo Cecchi) as a gift for his unborn son, the violin becomes the embodiment of Bussotti's grief when his beloved wife, ANNA (Irene Grazioli,) and his infant die in childbirth. Mysteriously, CESCA, the family's housekeeper and a reader of Tarot cards, has predicted a long and adventure-filled life for Anna, coupling her fate to the dramatic fate of the Red Violin.

From this moment on, the violin embarks on a journey through time, becoming the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual centerpiece of the lives of its various owners. As the Tarot cards predict the future "life" of the violin -- describing a death, an ocean journey, a trial, and other events that come to pass -- Morritz and his team of twentieth-century experts, scientists, and musicologists at the auction house, including EVAN WILLIAMS (Don McKellar,) use their skills and instruments to probe the secrets of the violin's past, searching for the key to its perfect acoustics and its unusual red finish. The answers can be found in the Red Violin's tumultuous history.

After Anna's death, the Red Violin leaves Italy, resurfacing in an Austrian monastery famed for its young orchestra. There, it is played by generations of orphans until it comes into the hands of six-year-old child prodigy KASPER WEISS (Christoph Koncz) in 1792. Realizing that the boy has an exceptional talent, the monks call in French music master GEORGES POUSSIN (Jean-Luc Bideau) to launch Kasper's career. The maestro recognizes the frail boy's musical potential and determines to find a patron to support him. But Poussin disapproves of Kasper's emotional dependency on the violin -- the lonely orphan even sleeps with his instrument -- and tries to separate them. As a result, Kasper becomes ill, dying at the very moment his royal audition begins.

The Red Violin is buried with Kasper, but grave-robbers steal the magnificent instrument and it ends up in the hands of nomadic gypsies. In England in 1893, the Red Violin captures the attention of FREDERICK POPE (Jason Flemyng) a Byronic violinist who enthralls audiences with his flamboyantly romantic musical style. Pope is equally passionate in his personal life. His affair with novelist VICTORIA BYRD (Greta Scacchi) becomes charged with eroticism when the Red Violin enters their lives, and sexual fulfillment and musical inspiration become one. When Victoria realizes that the Red Violin has become her rival -- a seductress who holds Pope in her power -- she tries to destroy it.

Pope's Oriental manservant rescues the Red Violin and transports it to his native Shanghai, where he sells the instrument to a pawnbroker. It languishes unnoticed in the shop for decades until a mother buys it for her young daughter XIANG PEI. Several years later, in 1965, Xiang Pei (Sylvia Chang,) now a grown woman, finds herself at the center of the maelstrom of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A party official, she is expected to support the denunciation of a music teacher who is chastised for teaching a useless western instrument -- namely, the violin. Xiang Pei takes a chance and speaks up on behalf of the violinist, saving him from punishment. But she realizes that she must dispose of her own "corruption," the Red Violin she has owned since childhood. Rather than cast her violin to the flames, Xiang Pei locates the music teacher and implores him to take the instrument into hiding. Though aware of the risk, he hides the Red Violin in his attic, amongst dozens of other western instruments he has collected for safekeeping.

The Red Violin remains in its hiding place until the present. The Cultural Revolution long over, Chinese authorities realize the value of the music teacher's collection and decide to send the instruments to an auction house in Montreal. While other experts focus on a potential Stradivarius in the collection, New York based Charles Morritz, as tough as he is brilliant, concentrates on the beaten and battered Red Violin, conducting tests to determine if the instrument might be the lost 17th century Bussotti masterpiece. Intrigued by the violin's unusual color, Morritz sends samples of its unique red varnish for analysis.

Once Morritz establishes that the unusually-colored instrument is in fact the long-lost Red Violin, eager bidders come from all over the world to participate in the auction. They include modern-day trustees of the Austrian Monastery that raised -- and buried -- Kasper Weiss, a representative of the Frederick Pope Institute, and a Chinese businessman who knew Xiang Pei when he was a child. The Red Violin has a lasting hold on all the lives it has touched. And its newest conquest is Charles Momitz: the Red Violin has become his obsession.

Once Morritz' investigation leads him to the shocking and ultimately inspirational secret of the Red Violin, he alone understands its true value, a value that has nothing to do with money. He resolves that the violin will fulfill its original destiny -- to pass from father to child as an enduring symbol of love and the relationship between art and life. With the help of Evan Williams, Morritz substitutes a convincing fake for the precious Red Violin, hides the original under his coat, and leaves the auction to return to New York. Morritz has a different and more worthy plan for the instrument. He will present it to his child as a legacy of love, just as Bussotti hoped to do when he first created the magnificent Red Violin. Acknowledgement: MovieWeb Internet, Wikipedia, The Red Violin Movie--------------------------------------
The Red Violin touched the lives of many people, both the good and the bad; for the latter, the greedy and obsessed.  Many of them changed, others have yet to learn. I hope they will.  The Red Violin is a curse to those who defy true goodness. Its ending begins a cycle. And perhaps the story repeats itself if man does not reform.  
Similar plots are found in John Steinbeck's The Pearl, also in The Moon Stone where a precious thing becomes a curse - and in many true-to-life stories. - AVRotor  

Spirituality with Nature: Give Me the Sky

 Spirituality with Nature: Give Me the Sky

Give me the sky symbolizes more than freedom, the realization of life's meaning, and beauty of living, humility and reverence. It reminds man of his role as guardian of creation.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Skyview through the roof of Callao Cave, Peñablanca, Cagayan

Cirrus -stratus cloud formation under a tree

Give me the sky and I'll conquer darkness,

even only a shaft through the rock;

Give me the sky and I will follow the sun

from morn to evening and back.

Give me the sky and I'll watch the moon

grow full and old and reborn;

Give me the sky and I'll chart the stars,

the future and coming storm.

Give me the sky and I will ask the clouds

to fall into rain and the fields green;

Give me the sky to greet the birds in flight,

where they go, where they've been.

Give me the sky and I'll soar into space

beyond the limits of the earth;

Give me the sky and I'll see from there

the magnificent place of my birth.

Give me the sky and I'll keep it clean -

the river, the lake and stream;

Give me the sky and I'll fly the biggest kite

to lead a child to his dream.

Give me the sky, and lead my spirit

from the earth to far beyond;

Give me the sky that I may know You `

through the goodness of Your Son. ~

The Garden as Entomology Laboratory

 Living with Nature Series

The Garden as Entomology Laboratory

Dr Abe V Rotor

NOTE: Entomology (study of insects) is best studied in the field in order to gain on-site and hands-on experience. A school garden, such as the UST Botanical Garden Manila serves the purpose for regular field work. Ideally, schools with sprawling campuses are ideal. Ateneo de Manila University for one, and University of the Philippines Diliman, and of course, UP Los Banos in Laguna. I updated this article at the San Vicente (Ilocos Sur) Botanical Garden (Living with Nature Center) early this year. 
---------------------------------------------

Daddy-long-legs, relative of the mosquito, quakes continuously when at rest by swaying its body back and forth in all directions, causing blurred view to a would-be attacker, and mesmerizing a potential prey. In the open, such optical illusion is enhanced by the shadow of the moving organism. Note the hind pair of wings reduced into halteres or balancer, characteristic of Dipterans. There is another kind of daddy-long-legs which belongs to Arachnida.

---------------------------------------------

With increasing population, traffic and commerce all around a community, there is one place, a garden, that offers a wildlife sanctuary, specially insects. Here they live freely in the trees and shrubs, on annuals, inside the greenhouses, around the ponds, in loamy soil, and in the shade of buildings, and even visit homes seeking a suitable abode.

I have the feeling that of all animals, insects are the most adapted to the varied aspects of human activities, from the sound of hurrying feet to soft echoes of prayer and hymns – and loud music. When there are humans around, insects feed on morsels, paper and crayons, drink on fruit juices and beer. They aestivate in flower pots and boxes to tide with the harsh summer months. Or hibernate when the cold Siberian High comes. I think Pavlov’s conditioned learning works with insects as well.

Interestingly, as an entomologist, I have been monitoring the insects in some gardens, listing down a good number of species that include those not readily found elsewhere. These include a giant click beetle, a rhinoceros beetle with horns resembling a triceratops, Ficus pollinating wasp, leaf-curling thrips of ikmo, long horned grasshoppers, sulfur and Papilio butterflies.

Well, it is a fact that there is no escape from insects - good or bad ones. In terms of species, there are 7 insects out of 10 animal organisms of earth. Insects comprise 800,000 kinds and scientists estimate that their kin - lobster shrimps, spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes and scorpions if these were to be added, the phylum to which they all belongs, Phylum Arthropoda, would comprise 80 percent of all animals organisms. To compare, plants make up only one-half million species.

What secrets have insects in dominating the animal world, and surpassing the geologic history of dinosaurs, fishes, mammals and even some mollusks?

Well look at the ants, termites, and bees, the so-called social insects. Their caste system is so intact and strict that is was long regarded as a model of man’s quest for a perfect society. It inspired the building of highly autocratic empires like Egyptian and Roman Empires, and the monarchial Aztecs, Inca and Mayan civilizations.

Antlion's traps. The predatory larva of this Neuropteran (Dendroleon obsoletum) lies buried at the bottom of the pit waiting for an unwary ant to fall and become its meal. The adult resembles the damselfly.

Take the case of the butterflies and moths. Their active time is not only well defined - diurnal or nocturnal, but their food is highly specific to a plant or group of plants and their parts. Their life cycles allow either accelerated or suspended metamorphosis depending on the prevailing conditions of the environment, a feat no other animal can do more efficiently.

In an outdoor lecture around a garden pond, I explained  the bizarre life of the dragonfly, once a contemporary of the dinosaur. Its young called nymph is a fearful hunter in water as the adult is in air. Apparently this is mainly  the reason on how it got its legendary name. I showed our visitors mainly students about the weapons of insects: the preying mantis carries a pair of ax-and-vise, a bee brandishes a poisonous dagger, while a tussock moth is cloaked with stinging barbs, a stink bug sprays corrosive acid on eyes or skin. The weevil has an auger snout, the grasshopper grins with shear-like mandibles, and the mosquito tucks in a long, contaminated needle.

Artistic representation of a damsel fly, Museum of Natural History, Mt Makiling Botanical Garden, UPLB Laguna
We examined a beetle. Our thought brought us to the medieval age. A knight in full battle gear! Chitin, which makes up its armor called exoskeleton, has not been successfully copied in the laboratory. So with the light of the firefly, the most efficient of all lights on earth.

Wait until you hear this! Aphids, scale insects and some dipterans, are capable of paedogenesis, that is, the ability of immature insects to produce young even before reaching maturity!

Numbers, numbers, numbers. This is the secret of survival and dominance in the biological world. King Solomon is wise indeed in halting his army so that another army - an army of ants can pass. Killer ants and killer bees destroy anything that impedes their passage, including livestock - and human.

Invisibility is another key to insect survival and dominance. Have you examined the inside of leaf galls in santol, Ficus and ikmo? Well, you need a microscope to see the culprit - thrips or red mites. I demonstrated to guests how insects, being very small, can ride on the wind and current, find easy shelter, and are less subjected to injury when they fall. Also, insects require relatively less energy than bigger organisms do. All of these contribute to their persistence and worldwide distribution. Insects surely are among the ultimate survivors of a disaster.

In an article I wrote, A Night of Music in a Garden I described Nature’s musicians, the cricket and the katydid. While their sounds are music to many of us they are totally coded sounds similar to our communications. Cicadas, beetles, grasshopper, have their own “languages”, and in the case of termites and bees, their language is in the form of chemical signals known as pheromones. It is from them that we are learning pheromones in humans.

A Walking Stick, a perfect example of mimicry. 

Without insects, we are certain to miss our sweetest sugar which is honey, the finest fabric which is silk, the mysterious fig (Smyrna fig) which is an exotic fruit. We would be having less and less of luscious fruits, succulent vegetables, the reddest dye, unique flavor in cheese, and most likely we will not have enough food to eat because insects are the chief pollinators, and main food of fishes and other animals. They are major links in the food chains and food webs, the columns of a biological Parthenon.

Without insects, the earth would be littered with dead bodies of plants and animals. Insects are the co-workers of decomposition with bacteria and fungi as they prepare for the life of the next generation by converting dead tissues into organic materials and ultimately into their inorganic forms. Together they help bridge the living and the non-living world.

A garden without bees and butterflies mirrors a scenario of the biblical fall. And if the other creatures in that garden strayed away from its beautiful premises as our first forebears began their wandering, they too, must have learned the true values of life, which they share to us today.

Green Bug

Beautiful is the verse from A Gnat and a Bee, an Aesop fables. To wit:

“The wretch who works not for his      daily bread,

Sighs and complains, but ought not to be fed.

Think, when you see stout beggars on their stand,

The lazy are the locusts of the land.”

In The Ant and the Grasshopper, Aesop, acting like a father with a rod in hand, warns. He was referring to the happy-go-lucky grasshopper.

“Oh now, while health and vigour still remain,

Toil, toil, my lad, to purchase honest again!

Shun idleness! Shun pleasure’s tempting snare!

A youth of rebels breeds age of care.”

Ecologically insects are the barometer of the kind of environment we live in. A pristine environment attracts beneficial insects, while a spoilt one breeds pests and diseases

I have yet to see a firefly in a city garden. I remember an article in Renato Constantino’s series of publications, Issues Without Tears. Its title is, You don’t See Fireflies Anymore, a prophesy of doom, a second to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Ficus pseudopalma and its exclusive wasp pollinator, a classical example of co-evolution. Only this species of wasp can pollinate and subsequently fertilize the introverted flower of this fig plant. Wasp is magnified 20x under a stereo microscope.

Maybe. But I have not lost hope. Someday, a flicker in the night may yet come from a firefly and not from a car or cigarette - if only others will share with me the same optimism. ~

Grow Talinum (Talinum triangulare) on Compost-in-Sack

                                        Practical Home Technology Series

Grow Talinum (Talinum triangulare*) 

on Compost-in-Sack

Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Local beauty model Angie Tobias poses before a luxuriant growth of talinum at the Living with Nature Center in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Growing talinum in compost-in-sack is a project initiated by the Rotor family in response to the current need of vegetables in the diet, and herbal remedies for local ailments and maintenance of good health as explained in the two researches, the abstract of each is hereby presented as annexes.

 

 

Talinum is grown around a sack of composted leaves.  Left, top view showing plastic receptible on top of sack for watering; right, talinum is ready for harvesting.  Harvesting is done regularly at weekly interval or as needed.  The portable garden is a source of fresh vegetable cooked in sinigang, diningding, steamed as salad, and other recipes.      

Talinum growing on compost sacks arranged in a row on an East-West orientation at the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

*Talinum triangulare or waterleaf is packed with essential antioxidants and soluble fibers that act as mild laxatives. It is, therefore, recommended for use when constipation is an issue. It regulates blood sugar level, and is essential for managing diabetes mellitus. (Joshua et al 2012, Internet)

ANNEXES  

1. Review on the Medicinal Potentials of Waterleaf (Talinum triangulare)

Mediterranean Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Volume 4, 

Issue 2, Pages 01-07, April-June 2020 7 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2020

Yilni Edward Bioltif

Plateau State University of Bokkos - Department of Chemistry

Date Written: October 17, 2020

Abstract

Scientific researches and innovations have been the stepping stone for development of the world. It is then very important to engage in research today, especially for developing countries. Plants have been instrumental in the hands of scientific researchers today and used to improve the health systems of the world. Thus, the purpose of this review is to explore the medicinal potentials of the commonly known Waterleaf (Talinum trianguare), which has been extensively used in local communities in Nigeria and beyond, to treat/manage various human ailments which include regulation of blood sugar level, dropsy, oedema and body weight management, as well as for food and feed. This research will help to promote the utilization and cultivation of Waterleaf by the public, and as well serve as a vital tool on which further researches can be based upon and used to explore the different parts of the plant.

2. Talinum Triangulare (Water Leaf): What a Wonderful Plant!

Tiamiyu Adebisi Musefiu & Oluwafemi Doris Yinka

(Department of Biological Sciences, University of Medical Sciences,

Ondo City, Ondo State Nigeria) Oluwafemi Doris Yinka

Abstract

The importance of nutraceutical plants and the contribution of phytomedicine to the well-being of quite a large number of people and their animals worldwide has attracted interest from a variety of disciplines. Nutraceutical plants have proved to be very important in medicinal plants research and because of the bioactive compounds that these plants possess, they are useful in drug research and development. This article reviewed the bioactive constituents of Talinum triangulare; its therapeutic and nutritional importance as well as the usefulness of its bioactive compounds in agricultural settings. Bioactive components such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, phlobatannin, anthraquinones, steroid, terpenes, phenols, cardiac glycoside were reported to be present in T. triangulare. T. triangulare has been implicated medically in the management of cardiovascular diseases like stroke, obesity and this was attributed to the presence of some bioactive compounds such as flavonoids and antioxidants in this plant. T. triangulare was also reported to contain some important minerals such as ß-carotene, minerals (such as calcium, potassium and magnesium), pectin, protein and vitamins. Investigations involved inclusion of T. triangulare dried powder as additive in the feed and inclusion of the leaf extract in drinking water were also reported to improve growth performance as well as immune system of both aquatic and terrestrial animals respectfully. It is therefore concluded that T. triangulare leaves can contribute significantly to the health management of Man and animal and should be recommended to be included in the daily nutritional requirement of both Man and animal. Suggested Citation: Tiamiyu Adebisi Musefiu & Oluwafemi Doris Yinka, 2022. "Talinum Triangulare (Water Leaf): What a Wonderful Plant?," Journal of Biotechnology Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 8(2), pages 26-31, 04-2022.

Acknowledgement to the Institutions and authors of these two researches; the Internet, and Living with Nature Center staff.

Odes to my Idol Writers and Authors (10))

 Odes to my Idol Writers and Authors

                                             By Abe V Rotor

1. To Dr Jose Rizal

Your enemies tried to silence you,
     and curtailed your freedom;
the lamp flickers its last rays at dawn
     to seal your martyrdom.

2. To Aesop
Ah! Animals talk louder than men
though in screech, crow and bleat;
yet by moral and sanity, speak
not the language on the street.

3. To Ernest Hemingway
You seemed as brave as the old man
     in your great masterpiece;
the soldier, the hunter, the dreamer -
     yet wanting a life of peace.

4. To Charles Darwin
You did not give up to your critics,
    who only prayed and preached;
Around the world you witnessed,
    change by random and fit.

5. To Lola Basiang (penname of Severino Reyes) 
You touched a million-and-one lives,
     around campfires in their prime;
like Grimm and Anderson and Homer,
     storytellers of all time.

6. To Boris Pasternak
Zhivago, to the end walked away alone,
from love neither in winter nor fallow;
what romance away from the war zone
wrapped him in doubt and sorrow.

7. To Mark Twain 
I am a boy forever, Tom or Huck,

    down the Mississippi loafing;
and let the world go on sans care
    what grownups are missing.

8. To Robert Louis Stevenson
"Kidnapped" made a boy into man
too soon to faced a cruel world;
learning quickly the art of war
deceit, conceit, gun and sword.

9. To Oscar Wilde 
You're a creator of characters and events,
     in novels, stories, and plays
children and adults alike on the armchair
     live in those times and places.

10. To Arthur Conan Doyle
"Sherlock Holmes" lives to this day,
     idol of any detective;
"The Lost World" remains of the past,

     is back in our midst to live. ~