Stories from Deli

Szekely, 1920s

The Malays will clear a piece of forest, but the wood as best they can, build cages of palm leaves on long piles, plant rice in the soil just as it is, without ploughing or digging it up, and leave the rest to Tuan Allah. When the rice grows and ripens, they harvest it and again till the ground without first working on it. They repeat this a third time. But at the fourth the·soil will yield nothing more, and then they leave the kampong and move on. Weeds grow over the old kampong, and a year later all you can find in the weeds to remind you that humans once lived in this place is a few stunted banana and papaya trees.

From: Ladislao Szekely, Tropical fever