OUR LIFE IS AS VULNERABLE AS ...


"OUR LIFE IS AS VULNERABLE AS WATER STUCK IN THE LEAF OF TARO"

Since one can google to find out how good and evil taro differ. And I also found out there are several types of Not-good-taro in Taiwan. I am just going to use my own photos and say my own things from my experience. The last photo is from our back neighbour’s. And there are probably 3-4 cousins just in that little corner.

1. The center of the veins in the evil taro leaf start along the top edge of the leaf (this is where all the veins meet), whereas the veins in the good taro leaf meet together about an inch from the top.
 
 

2. Full yellow leaves are found mostly of Evil taro.
 
 

3. Pretty but stinky red flowers usually grown on Evil taro. (Taken last summer from the same place I took gupoyu)
 

4. This is widely known. But since I have never witnessed and compared. I can’t say I know that works.

Quote from Tammy Turner: For the morphologically challenged, a water test is easiest. When you drip water on gupoyu, the water sticks on the leaf surface. For taro it is repelled and rolls off.

This, of course, makes sense of my title.

 


 
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mongolian BBQ History Taiwan - Created by a Chinese Comedian 1951

Image
Photo Update (June 10 2020)  Source - 'Remembering Taiwan' Facebook Group Mongolian BBQ mobile vendors in the late 1950s on the east bank of Tamsui River  Credit to Mr A Zoraster who stationed at Taipei Air Station from Aug 64 until Dec 66  Credit to Mr A Zoraster who stationed at Taipei Air Station from Aug 64 until Dec 66  “In Mongolia, you won’t find Mongolian Barbeque.   But, you do in Taiwan.   It’s just as you won’t find Fuzhou Noodle in Fuzhou.   But, you do in Taiwan.   Neither would you find Sichuan Braised Beef Noodle Soup in Sichuan.   Again, you do in Taiwan.   They are created by Taiwanese food industry to reflect the chefs’ imaginations of the regions and creativities.” In my forthcoming book with Steven Crook “The Culinary History of Taipei” Chapter 6: Supplying the Consumer (Taipei’s Markets) . We included an anecdote of Mongolian BBQ mobile vendors in the late 1950s on the east bank of Tamsui River : “…… and that cooked in the op
Read more

Saartje Specx (17th Century Dutch-Japanese, Famous Prisoner Batavia, Wife of First Missionary Fromosa) and Her Grave by Pineapple Stretch

Image
Terrence Ying-Tai Lai  賴英泰 in a recent talk I attended mentioned 'Sara's Grave 莎拉之墓' in Tainan.  Saartje Specx story, unknown to many including myself, is most fascinating.  A 17th-century watercolor drawing of the Dutch East India Company’s Fort Zeelandia, present-day Tainan, taken from the Eugenius-atlas, which was commissioned by Laurens van der Hem, a Dutch lawyer and map collector. (Wikipedia) Saartje's grave in green circle.  Pineapple stretch, women prison, graveyard, Amsterdam (a farm) clearly labelled. (Terrence Ying-Tai Lai  賴英泰 talk at Linking Publishing    聯經書房) Page one of a piece I found online. Saartje Specx (1617–1636) was the daughter of Jacques Specx, governor of the North Quarter of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC's) Asian trading empire, and a Japanese concubine. Saartje (Sara in English) was born at the Dutch trading base on the island of Hirado. In 1629, aged 12, she was living at Batavia in Java under the protection of Jan Coen, gov
Read more

Sweet thirty hour stay - Taitung

Image
1. Our host  Aeles (tears in the Rukai language) at her restaurant Dawana ( a place of rest) 2. Buddha's head (fruit) in a bowl bought from a Paiwan wood-craftsman  3. The wood artist's most famous work - lily (flower) 4. Green Island on the horizon 5. Taiwan red quinoa  6. Ancient 'hot stone technique‘ soup My original plan was to go to Miaoli for a vegetable dyeing and weaving workshop with 林淑莉 Lin Shu-li a Taiwanese married into Atayal family and who demonstrated her skill in London in 2018. The workshop was closed until further notice. I therefore contacted Lily Wen (or Aeles Lrawbalrate in Rukai and 溫秀琴 in Mandarin) in Taitung if I could pay a long overdue visit - cancelled two years ago by typhoon. She readily welcomed and there I went with a friend. (Note -  For the Paiwan and Rukai peoples, lilies signify virtue and beauty in women as well as bravery and hunting power in men) We were greeted by a local friend and taken to
Read more