MARAPAIT

Whenever I’m on a bus winding up or down Palispis Highway (formerly Marcos Highway, the La Union part is called Aspiras Highway), I enjoy looking at the mountains and count how many colors there are. There are lots of embasa/aneng/malapising (green), of course, and patches of pakak/sampiro/biyolik (violet), agay/nak-kit/kakaw (brown), embalenga (red), empoti (white), aposas/afosasa (pink), and plenty of diyaw/shoyaw ( yellow), courtesy of the wild sunflowers or marapait as we call it in my hometown. In contrast to the sunflowers grown in homes, wild sunflowers are highly branched with small flowers.  Of course, wild as they are, they are not grown in Igorot homes but are just enjoyed as seen in mountains or along the road. 

Farmers say that marapait kills other plants around them because of their high acidity content.  Some organic farmers chop the leaves and stem and use it as fertilizer.  Back in my grade school days, we used their leaves to make our classroom floors shiny.  When we didn’t have a supply of floor wax, we would get marapait and “whip” them on the floor until the floor becomes really shiny and slippery.  I wonder if this may be reintroduced in schools as a part of “going back to basics” and in helping preserve the environment? J