Kapayas is Bulusan's Papaya

I am not going to be technical today. No scientific names. Besides it is easy to do that. Just go to the List of Philippine plants (StuartXchange site is recommended). I intend to share my view on the physical beauty of the Papaya known in Bulusan as K-a-p-a-y-a-s. 

First, look at the pattern. She (this is a female papaya) is so symmetrical with the necessary edging. The stalks and her leaves are like green umbrellas reaching out for the sun's rays instead of shying away from it. The spaces between the slender stalks create a beautiful pattern of rays resembling clusters of umbrellas arranged radially.

Second, the fruits--drooping like multiple elongated breasts infinitely growing from her top body. The green color does not hide the fact that week after week this unassuming kapayas at our backyard will deliver  luscious sweet fleshy fruits not from her nipple but the whole of it. A feat considering that she does not require much care. In fact none at all.

Our backyard kapayas is very prolific. The harvested fruits go directly to the table. I almost forgot to mention the color. The fleshy fruit's color is the color of peach and melon. A sure invitation to partake her.

Please be sure to spread her seeds after every luscious moment with your papaya. Throwing back the seeds at your backyard is not a bad idea. Two or three of those will become another source of your papaya table fare.

And this does not include those kapayas that accompanied our native chicken for 'Linumpan na manok' a dish with papaya and coconut milk the recipe of which is shared by pamughaton.net.

'Linumpan na manok' is another Bulusan's culinary favorite.



Photographs by Alma P. Gamil

Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines