THE NEVERLAND: THE LAND OF ORGANIC CASHEW

I browsed through my blurted thoughts and landed in the year of 2006. The piece was about a land that I visited called Ile Padung. Ile means village and Padung is the name. Ile padung is the gateway to organic cashewnut. A place where ignorance is a bliss, a place that could melt one's heart. 

It was a long trip, almost 3 to 4 hours from Maumere. The winding roads covering the hill were excellent and we were entertained by the traditional houses and ways of life on both sides of the streets. Once a while a bus loaded with heavy luggage on the top, tried to pass our car. The dust filled the air, drifting slowly before they landed back on the roads and trees, leaving a dusty trails on the side of the roads. 

As we enter the village most of the land were covered by cashew trees. We were welcomed by the cashew fruits that dangled like christmast ornaments. Green when young but turns orangish as it grows ripe. The ripe ones were scattered all over the dried leaves underneath the trees. A group of cows were consuming the meat of the ripe cashew fruit beneath the shadow of the trees.

We went straight to a place where they assemble the cashew nuts called UPH (Unit Pengumpul Hasil). Pak Kris and Pak Gabriel, the informal leaders,  were there to welcome us. The UPH is a well managed compartment. Ripe cashew, the seed and the inedible hard shell is called gelondong. The gelondongs are placed on the dry hot sun on the cement for 4 days. The process of drying up the gelondongs occurs in other 4 parts of the village. The UPH is a place where all gelondongs are stockpiled and  the process of peeling the hard shell is done . The edible part of the nut covered by the thin skin is then dried again for another 1 or 2 hours under the sun to make the next phase not too demanding. The thin skin can now be easier peeled off. The raw cashew nut has now turned into the shape that we are familiar with. The final step, they need to be dried again for 15 minutes before they are ready to be packed in a vacuumed plastic wrap. 

The traditional way of growing cashews hinders their ability to export them. The process of drying up the cashews could not be done other way since at that time electricity had not been distributed to that part of the world. Another reason why exporting is hard to do because people fail to meet the required amount of cashews requested by the exporters. Whenever they are in heavy need of money which occur most of the time, they sell their gelondongs to middleman who are always waiting with their hungry mouth wide open.
The people who live in the village are warm hearted. Dark shiny skin exposed under the sun and curly hair are typical people who inhabits the village. They are by nature most polite with a great deal of outward humily and seem willing to agree to anything rather than upset strangers. Don't expect to get the truth out of their mouth merely because most people will only be trying to show good manners. They respect others especially strangers.  

I really wish I could go back to that place once again, the neverland where sweet organic cashew grows and people live