I Love the Kapok Tree

I Love the Kapok Tree

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Towering kapok trees (Ceiba pentranda), University of the Philippines, Diliman QC

I love the kapok tree for its towering height few trees can attain, clearly outlined against the sky, solid crown during monsoon, and skeleton with dangling pods in summer;

I love the kapok tree for its grotesque trunk, fortress roots shaped like walls, running in great length, and forming into troughs and cubicles by nature's magic of inarching;

I love the kapok tree for the gong music its buttresses produce when struck by horned animals in passionate beat and rhythm during mating season, as war drums in battle, or warning in imminent danger;

I love the kapok tree for foretelling El Niño, by profusely bearing pods as if it were its last breathe, its assurance to its species' survival, and we, humans heeding it as warning against a coming famine and death;

I love the kapok tree for its shade against sun and rain, keeping the soil moist, air cool and grass green, its crown taming gusts of wind into cool breeze, whistling, whispering, lulling;

I love the kapok tree for its thick and layered foliage on multistoried boughs, that muffle noise around, yet resonant to the songs of birds, fiddling of crickets, and shrill of the cicada;

I love the kapok tree for its many tenants from earthworm that feeds on its litter, termites and beetles on its pruned branches, gecko lizard ensconced in its hallowed limb, relief station of countless transient guests;

I love the kapok tree when its flower pods open in fragrance at sunrise, and when ripe and dry, dehisce into the air countless lints floating soft as silk, to the thrill of children at play and lovers meek in the park;

I love the kapok tree for its silky lint, its inside the trapped air makes it the best pillow filling in the world, ever resilient, springy, and soft, and makes sleep deep and dreams sweet;

I love the kapok tree for its seed, source of natural detergent and cosmetics, its meal rich in food value, and curative power, too - from emollient, catarrh to Cupid's potion;

I love the kapok tree even in its barest state, for I see heaven through its frame in the like of the Tower of Babel, when the Angelus tolls at the end of day - or in requiem for my beautiful, stately tree. ~

  

Kapok trees at UP Diliman QC. 

Ceiba pentandra is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae, native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and West Africa. A somewhat smaller variety was introduced to South and Southeast Asia, where it is cultivated. Wikipedia

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]