Memories of Hometown Trees

The next year, I had my daughter Jingjing. I was in Taiyuan, just retired, and came all the way to Taiyuan to see my granddaughter. At that time, my daughter was just babbling. As soon as the father entered the door, he took his chubby daughter into his arms and then took out a handful of red dates from his handbag. It was July 7, and I knew it was the tree in front of my house. It was said that it was the fruit of jujube planted by my grandfather's father.

Father told me that it was the last time to eat dates at home. When the house was built and the trees in the yard were cut down, a silence appeared on my father's face.

I live in a small rural plain in the southeast of Henan Province, where there are endless cornfields. When I was a child, there were many trees in my hometown. At that time, all kinds of trees were planted in front of and behind every house, including fruit trees that can bear sweet fruits, ornamental banyan trees and locust trees, and many trees with rural names, such as elm, poplar, locust tree and tung tree. At that time, the houses in the country were still low thatched houses and tile houses. During the day, these leafy trees block the hot sun, and the ground is covered with green trees. We lie on the cool millstone covered with dense green in the yard, listening to the small crisp sound of the trees and the cool wind blowing with fragrant leaves, and we will sleep comfortably until three or four in the afternoon.

In fact, every tree has its place. For example, locust trees, persimmons, peach trees, apple trees and pear trees are generally planted in front of the house, poplar trees and elm trees are generally planted on both sides of the road or in open places, willow trees are generally planted in ponds and rivers, and some trees are carried by the elderly. At that time, people planted trees with no intention of selling money, and most of them built houses for future generations. This is why the predecessors planted trees and the descendants enjoyed the cool. No matter which village you go to in the countryside, there will be one or two grotesque, leafy locust trees embraced by two or three people. The tree cracked like a turtle shell, and the branches on it were bare. Some have an iron wheel hanging under them, which is the assembly point for the production team to go to work. These trees are for children to play with. In summer, it is also a symbol of the hometown of many homeless people who leave their hometown. Many people always ask about everything at home when they write, and always ask, is the big locust tree at the entrance of the village still there? It seems that it is not a tree, but a respected old man in the village. Wanderers returning home are far from the entrance of the village, and they will get off and run under the big locust tree. In short, I will be in tears when I get home.

Once, I asked a very learned old man in the village why there are big locust trees in our village in Fiona Fang. The old man thought for a moment and told me that this is to commemorate our hometown, because a big immigrant in the Ming Dynasty asked us to start all the way from the big locust tree in our hometown, which is far from our hometown. The vicissitudes of the old man make people feel heavy.

There are many trees that people didn't plant intentionally. They are masterpieces of wind, birds and land. When a gust of wind blows, the cores of elms and poplars will be blown into moist and fertile land, and thin buds will grow the next year. At that time, there were few people and the village was full of empty and uninhabited places. Those wild trees will grow wildly after repeated storms until one day they grow into a large lush forest and become children's hide and seek.

When I came, the trees in my hometown woke up from their deep sleep day after day. More and more dense leaves tell people that the seasons are changing, the willows by the river are sprouting, and the apricot flowers, peach blossoms and pear flowers in the yard are blooming for the second time. Everyone's yard is full of flowers, and the countryside seems to be a beautiful sea of flowers. At that time, the leaves of poplar, elm, paulownia and jujube were getting bigger and denser. Because in late spring and early summer, all kinds of fruit trees can be eaten, such as sour and sweet apricots and sweet apples and pears. At that time, children didn't have chocolate, and now there are no snacks with various preservatives. Wild fruit on the tree was the most beautiful snack for children at that time. In my memory, after school, schoolbags were everywhere in the orchard, and children climbed to the top of the tree like monkeys to pick fruit. There are a group of poor Babaan children and children who can't climb trees. At that time, one aspect that boys admired was that they could climb trees. No matter how tall the tree is, Chengdu can climb to the highest place.

When summer comes, clusters of Sophora japonica blooms. We will take long bamboo poles, tie sickles to cut Sophora japonica, stroke raw Sophora japonica, take the rest home, let the noodles be steamed together, and swim across the river outside the village to pick mulberries to eat in the mulberry garden under the embankment.

When we come, the leaves fall like the spray of a waterfall. We will use a bamboo pole with a long line attached to the back to pick up the leaves of poplar and paulownia that have not completely withered, and go home to let my mother cook steamed buns.

Come to think of it, there are more than a dozen kinds of trees. In addition to the common ones, there are many rare but very precious tree species, such as Toona sinensis, which is a good seasoning for eating noodles and garlic juice, and can also be rolled into buns with salt. There is also a kind of Gleditsia sinensis, which can be said to be a full treasure. Gleditsia sinensis leaves can cure eye pain. Gleditsia sinensis leaves can wash hair and clothes, but they grow slowly. I remember a hug in the south of the village.

In fact, trees can not only be green, but also bring us green play and are spiritual. They accompany us day and night, bringing us green, birds and sweet fruits, and even bringing us a memory of life. When the wind comes, the tree will laugh loudly. When it rains, the tree will cry silently. When it is quiet, the trees will surround the garden and be white.

A few years later, I returned to my hometown from Taiyuan with my daughter and wife. There are all kinds of Ziziphus jujuba and Sophora japonica in the west of the yard. The wall with a history of 100 years is gone, and so is the old jujube tree that once brought us sweetness and happiness at the entrance of the hall. The yard is a newly built bungalow, a strange little tree planted by my father. I suddenly felt an empty and uncomfortable depression, as if I had lost a lot of beauty at once.

Now there are high-rise buildings everywhere in the village, and the shadows of trees are gradually driven to distant fields, and many tree species are gone. I don't know how many trees there will be in our countryside hundreds of years later. We humans are getting farther and farther away from the happiness and estrangement of nature, but the shadow of the trees in our hometown will always remain in our childhood dreams, as close as the playmates who grew up together as children, as close as the big locust tree at the entrance of the village, which is a symbol of our homesickness.