mother's tea tree

When I was a child, I lived in my hometown. In front of the two adobe houses were two jujube trees. For the sake of distinction, we called them big jujube trees and small jujube trees. There are also two trees behind the house, orange trees because they are the same height, there is no difference in size. My mother is very attentive to these four fruit trees and manages them very well, never letting anyone get close to them and break their branches. When the jujubes are green and yellow, the mother of the jujube tree that has grown into a small bowl will not let us climb and pick. The mother will use a bamboo pole to lightly tap the ripe red dates, then pick them up from the ground and put them in carefully. In the basket, it is stored, and it is a fine food in times of famine. I cherish the jujube trees even more. When picking, I use two wooden ladders to bundle them into an "eight-character" shape and climb up to pick the red ones. For the two citrus trees, every spring, the mother digs two holes around the canopy, applies enough farmyard manure, waters, weeds, and insects regularly, and cultivates them like crops, especially during the annual Laba Festival. At that time, the mother used a knife to cut several openings in the citrus tree, and devoutly fed the Laba porridge with a small spoon, reciting words in her mouth, praying for fruitful fruit in the coming year. Strange to say, other fruit trees are divided into big and small, and the two citrus trees managed by my mother are full of fruit every year. The big, sweet, slightly sour fruit attracts many greedy people to come and ask for it, and the mother does not show up, so they can enjoy it. Put the rest in a jar and seal it up, take out some of it and put it in a small carrying basket when the time comes, covered with a handkerchief, tentatively let me take it to a nearby roadside pocket to buy it, it's just 2 cents a piece of golden eggs Subsidized the family's life.

Even with these four fruit trees, my mother always felt that something was missing, and she kept talking about the solitary tea tree from time to time.

My mother came here from a tea hill in Linxian, 30 kilometers away. She was married without dowry, only dozens of tea seeds wrapped in handkerchiefs. For those who couldn't grow other crops, the mother sowed these seeds on the terrace in front of the grandmother's cemetery. Later, a hospital of the People’s Liberation Army was going to camp here. Grandma’s grave needed to be relocated. My father couldn’t take care of my work outside, so my mother chose a cemetery on the back mountain and moved it along with the surviving tea trees. Due to soil quality problems, only one surviving plant survived. , For this ray of hope, the mother often ignores the exhaustion of the production team and travels 1 km away to cultivate the soil, fertilize and water the tea tree. The hard work paid off, the tea tree gradually grew into a ridge, and there was a cluster of evergreen trees in front of my grandmother's cemetery. Five years later, a certain hospital was ordered to leave the camp, and waves of educated youth from the provincial capital came one after another. They repaired water conservancy, conducted research, and ran forest farms. Tea trees were planted on the barren hills. With the help of my mother, the seeds of this cluster of tea trees were used as seeds. Two years later, the seedlings grew well. Later, it became a high-quality tea garden built by the local government. Best-selling inside and outside the province.

In the early stage of the implementation of the joint production contract responsibility system, due to the need for livelihood, the family moved to a place 6 kilometers away from the original site, and the mother's tea tree complex remained unchanged. When he saw that the new site only had grain mulberries and no tea trees, he deliberately brought back a tea tree seedling and planted it in the corner of the vegetable garden behind the house. In a few years, it has grown into a dense cluster. When my mother was in the vegetable garden, she never forgot to take care of this cluster of tea trees. There are always more stubbles of tea trees in spring than other tea trees. My mother is not only an expert at growing tea but also a master at making tea by hand. When the season arrives, my mother divides the homemade tea into several portions, wraps them in newspapers, and gives them to fathers and children who love tea. The rest” A large piece of tea" is reserved for one's drinking, and it is also euphemistically called: mouth-watering. After the land was contracted to the household, my mother, who was over 500 years old, reclaimed the nearly 1 mu of barren hills that had been allocated to my family, planted tea trees, and managed and protected it from morning to night. After a few years, it became a lush green tea garden. Other farmers followed suit, and my mother also The tireless imparting of insight and insight is all about the prosperity of the industry. The original farmers who bought tea became the merchants who sold tea.

As the time sequence changed, my mother was full of silver hair and her physique was deteriorating day by day. She could only guard the cluster of tea trees in the corner of the vegetable garden. In addition to daily care, her mother also fed Laba porridge to the tea trees as usual during the Laba Festival, just as she did to the orange trees. . And every time I go home, I can drink the high-quality tea made by my mother, and listen to my mother's story. After a rain, my mother was picking vegetables in the field. I live in a tea tree, but I didn't fall from the 1-meter-high ridge. We were tearful when we heard it, but my mother smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, there is a tea tree to protect me!" Scared to think about it.

But everyone who is old will make some preparations for their affairs. After my father retired, he accompanies his mother to grow vegetables and play checkers at home. Sometimes there will be disputes because of regretting a move. The best solution is that my father will immediately say that he will go to the back of the room to look at the ridge of tea trees and make his mother smile. When looking at tea trees, my mother often fell into contemplation. In the other opposite corner of the vegetable garden, my mother transplanted two tea trees earlier, and they grew splendidly. My mother chose a piece of "Wannian House" for her father and herself a hundred years later. ”, and asked the husband to check on the spot behind his back.

After entering the new century, the sons and daughters bought houses in the city one after another because of their work. The mother has been living with the father at the original site and is reluctant to live in the city. Once the eldest brother picked up his mother in the city, and he shouted to go back within three days. We all know that my mother felt uneasy when she couldn’t see the tea tree she planted for a day. When my mother was in her 70s, she suffered from cerebral infarction. She needed long-term observation and recuperation. She had to go to the city to live with her eldest brother. To facilitate daily care, her father also came with her and had to transfer the original house and surrounding trees. To a villager in a neighboring village, only the vegetable garden with the cluster of tea trees was not transferred.

During my days living in the city, my mother often told some stories about tea trees. Winter snow, a storm, will arouse the mother's endless worries. My mother said that the jujube and citrus trees helped the family through difficult times, and the tea tree made life better and better. Now I can't make tea for you. I can only buy tea in the future. of sadness.

It has been more than ten years since my mother left us. Whenever the morning sun dyes the city red, the afternoon breeze drifts through the corridor, or the evening moonlight sprinkles the Xie Xuan window, brewing a pot of fragrant tea, staring at the distant mountains, the eyes are full of emerald green. It seems that they have become lush tea hills, glowing with green light. I suddenly realized that this is my mother's expectation that we should protect this green home!