I shed ‘milk’ for human comfort
My forefathers are from London’s
Kew Gardens, England. My parents wanted to migrate to a far away land in
the Asian Continent. They come to a conclusion that they should look for
a tropical country, like Sri Lanka or Malasiya.
They decided to leave their motherland and were carried away in a
steamer to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. My parents were the first
settlers in 1876 to set foot on Heneratgoda Botanical Gardens nineteen
miles away from Colombo. My great grandmother is still alive and taken
lodging at the Royal Botanical Gardens Peradeniya.
After a few years of dedicated service to the British sahibs my
father was able to obtain a few acres of land mainly in the Sabaragamuwa
Province. He settled down in the mid-country among the foothills of
South Western Sri Lanka. It had a splendid beauty with a small river
flowing down with rocks under shallow water. We lived by the side of the
river banks but much interior.
 From my infant days I was brought up with good care we were fed and
nursed with plenty of nourishing food obtained from earth and rain
water. My father also provided all of us good security as my family was
large.
We enjoyed a healthy happy life. As we grew from five to six years,
my body provided the essential statistic. My waist showed a girth of 24
inches while I grew up to become a tall tree. Each of us stood in formal
rows and formed cool green shady archway over the rough estate tracks
that thread them.
We grew fully exposed to nature in a sub tropical climate with
brilliant sunshine cold nights and plenty of rain. This helped me to
maintain a healthy growth. I had reached womanhood and in my mid forties
still turned up to be a beautiful woman with pointed breast and a steady
body. Once a man not very tall but ruggedly handsome with broad
shoulders, came and plunged a knife just above my hypes. A milky liquid
gushed out called latex. It was similar to a stabbed victim, blood
gushing out at every second.
Trees are tapped by the first light of day as the flow of the latex
slackens as soon as the sun is up: Tappers (both men and women) use a
special forked knife to shave a thin sliver of bark off the lower side
of the slanting cut made on my body.
The women displayed a picturesque site with their colourful chintz
cloth and jacket which reached several inches of bare midriff, their
well tanned complexion, shapely figures tapping the latex from the tree
trunk.
Trees are tapped every second or third day for 10 to 11 months a year
and next comes a lull period, which is a rainless month, February. This
is a resting period for all of us. It’s the time trees shed their leaves
and tapping re-commences and the trees show their pale green of their
feathery new foliage.
The milky latex drains from the raw edge of the cut into a container
usually half a coconut shell anchored to the trunk of the tree. The
collected latex looks like dirty milk. The latex yield increases
steadily for the next five to ten years and maintains a stable level
till the tree is milked dry. Dry trees are felled for firewood. As such
my life span does not exceed more than thirty five years.
At the next stage I am taken to a factory for processing. After
straining through sieves the latex is poured into large shallow pans for
coagulation is hastened by addition of ascetic acid. These exercises
give me added strength for my survival and to maintain my pretty looks.
The latex which jells overnight into white slabs, is then pressed
through rollers to squeeze out the moisture from me. Contd.
Again washed, air dried and smok to coat the sheet with a protective
cover against mould. My skin colour has now turned to deep amber and
smoked sheets are turned out as a finished product and given the name as
‘RUBBER’.
I am now branded as commercial commodity for local use as well as for
export. I have reached the final stage which is the ripe old age for
marketing packed in sheets in bulk and sent for distribution to auction
rooms looking for the highest bidder.
From early morning, bidding is done in packed houses while business
tycoons bargain from every corner. A wealthy manufacturer grabs me for a
handsome price. I now live with my life partner having a happy family
life and globe trotting.
I have influenced the lives of men and women, kings and queens around
the globe in incredible ways and created down the ages a world of
comfort and happiness.
- Tissa Hewavitarane
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