Seeds of Plenty by Jennifer Juo Read Free Book Online

children was the more insidious killer on the continent.
    Simeon led them to the fields bordering the village.
    “Can we take some samples of your soil?” Winston asked. “We need to test its nutrient levels in order to decide how much fertilizer you will need.”
    “Yes, yes of course,” Simeon said.
    Winston set to work with a group of villagers watching. He put on rubber gloves to avoid contaminating the soil sample with the calcium chloride in his own sweat. He first scraped leaves and manure from the surface of the soil. Then he pushed a long metal probe into the ground about a foot deep. The probe pulled up a core of soil in its tube, which he emptied into a clean, plastic bucket. He did this several more times, then carefully put the soil samples into plastic bags, which he placed in a cooler full of ice for transporting back to the lab. The ice kept the soil cold to avoid mineralization caused by the heat.
    After he was done, they walked back to the shade of a thatched canopy made of dried palm leaves, built at the center of the village. A group of villagers followed them and sat down, the group quickly increasing in size.
    “I will bring stools to sit on,” Simeon said to Winston and Richard, embarrassed that his countrymen sat on straw mats on the ground. Simeon returned with intricately carved wooden stools for them.
    “I don’t think your father will notice we took the samples, the cores were very small,” Winston said.
    “No problem, no problem. My fatha is backward. If we follow him, we no move to de future.”
    “My father was like that too. He didn’t want me to study science and come to the West,” Winston said.
    “We can’t listen to dem. Dey are of de old ways.” Winston recognized that impatient, dissatisfied tone of youth in Simeon’s voice. “I want to be like de English wit lights and TV and air con.”
    Winston understood what that glimpse into the modern Western world could do, how it made you look at your own people, how it drove you to want something more. He had felt that same longing when he first saw a visiting American professor’s house in Taipei. In the professor’s house on campus, there was a flush toilet with a seat. It was so clean, Winston was impressed; he was obsessively hygienic. After that, he couldn’t use the Chinese latrine, that reeking hole in the ground. He was embarrassed at how backward his people were. They used to be the Chinese Empire and they had fallen to this.
    “Listen, plant our seeds. You’ll get two or three times more harvest,” Winston explained. “Sell the surplus at the market. Eventually, you’ll make enough money to buy a TV and an electricity generator. You can have lights and air condition in your house too.”
    “Is that so?” Simeon said. “De whole village will go envy me, eh?”
    “Not me, brotha,” said a tall, well-built man with a permanent scowl on his face. Simeon introduced him as Oluwa, his brother-in-law, married to his eldest sister.
    “Oluwa, you’re as backward as my fatha. No wonder my sister married you. You not smart enough to study at de missionary school. Dey send you home,” Simeon said, laughing at him.
    “I don’t want your T.V. or whateva,” Oluwa said, angry now. “I grow enough to feed my family. We take de left over, and my wife sells at de market. Enough we can buy all de tings we need.”
    “Tst Simeon, you de one stupid,” Oluwa continued, pointing to Simeon. “Dey go be robbing you blind, eh.”
    “If you grow more maize, you can also use the extra cash to hire someone to help you on the farm,” Winston said, trying another approach.
    “But, why would I want to do dat?” Oluwa said, appearing ready for a good fight.
    “So you can relax, sit under this tree, and enjoy the lovely view,” Richard said, grinning. “Like so.” He sat down, crossed his legs, and pretended to enjoy the view of the towering jungle beyond the village.
    “But dat is what I do now.” Oluwa’s wide eyes