was walking on the ridge of the fields in his hometown and saw this woman pulling grass from the field, and felt emotional.
When the seedlings grow up and become lush, the weeds in the fields will also grow wildly. In order to prevent weeds from sharing the nutrients of the seedlings and affecting the harvest, weeds must be removed regularly. The tool for weeding in the paddy field is your own hands. You bend down and use your hands to pull weeds in the paddy field. We call it pulling weeds.
What seems to be a simple job is not easy to do. Bending over and hunching over is very tiring. Starting from the time I went to the fields, I had to pull the grass from the field like a cat. I pulled the grass for a long time and my back was so tired. The summer was scorching, and the heat wave was rolling. Burying my body among the seedlings, I felt as if I was being roasted in a steamer. It was extremely hot and stuffy. Once, my family had more than ten acres of paddy fields, and my mother and I did the work of pulling the field grass. The problem was that pulling once or twice was not enough, and we had to pull it many times. Failure to pull it would affect the growth of the seedlings, and thus the harvest.
In my memory, the most comfortable moment is to pull a handful of field grass, stand up, roll it into a ball, and throw it to the field ridge. Because this is done while standing up straight, this step is the best time for me to be lazy: Pull the grass slowly, lengthen your arm when throwing the grass, and throw it slowly. My mother knew what I was thinking, but she just didn't reveal it.
Familiar scenes, familiar backs, familiar movements, familiar postures, aren’t these the same myself and my mother 40 years ago? What is gratifying is that this woman is no longer working for a living, but she is unable to stay idle.
Life is no longer hard, labor is no longer drudgery, it is a song and a poem.
Text/Picture @Green Lotus Field
