Following the Heart

Following the Heart

“Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

 

When I last stepped out of a plantation, I thought to myself that I will never set foot in the industry again.

My pessimism was not brought about because of the job I was leaving, far from it. It was because I felt the city life would finally get the better of me, with all the excitement, convenience, and allure of citing living made available. For a while, it did seem as though working in the city was more attractive, more rewarding even. I loved the fast-paced lifestyle, the great exposure to different cultures, the ease of communication and getting things done. I loved how I could just run down from my desk and grab a wholesome meal within my office block, and then get over to the gym at the building just next door for a quick workout (not that I found time to exercise anyway).

 

But working in the city just wasn’t the same.

You see, working in the city lacks one key aspect for me: Charm.

Don’t be fooled, though. As romantic as it may be to read about plantation living from books like Mahbob Abdullah’s “Planter’sTale” or Leslie Davidson's "East of Kinabalu", working in the plantation is no walk in the park. Every person has to find his/her way of dealing with the stress of working in a plantation, and it is definitely not a job suited for just anyone. Some take on sports and physical activities, others take on less desirable pastimes. Everyone works hard, and at the end of the day, everyone plays hard.

 

For me, the most memorable aspect I’ve retained of my time in the plantation is the scenery.

 

 

Showy purple legume flowers

 

 

 

A beautiful flourish of fungal blooms on an abandoned old coconut

 

 

 

Coconut grove at entrance to the estate I worked

 

Coconut flower in bloom

 

Wasps busy pollinating coconut flowers

 

Triple-branching coconut palm

 

Sheep in the tropics? Better believe it

 

Young oil palm seedlings

 

Oil palm seedling glistening in the sun

 

A neat and well planted field of oil palms

 

Migratory bird over a cacao plantation

 

Shade trees commonly used in a cacao plantation

 

Cacao flowers in bloom

 

Young cacao leaf in flush

 

A big, red cacao pod

 

Mangrove tree at the riverside dock

 

The river that flows adjacent to the plantation property

 

Ultimately, experience has taught me that regardless of where one chooses to work, the most important thing is that you enjoy what you are doing. My first job was in the plantations, and honestly, I had no idea what kind of work it entailed back then. I admit the culture shock was quite great for me, and I didn’t adapt as well as expected. Now that I’m older, and presumably wiser, I am hoping to encounter the plantation life once more, but this time as someone different: 

A true apprentice to that art called agri-culture.