Foot and Fire

From pale green (or red or purple) you turned into sunshine signaling me that you are in hurry to be picked from the budded befruited standing scepter of the forest. Why hurry? You will be cut in half, you football-shaped creature! You will no longer remain you. You will be your many soft white seeds with smooth pulps bearing your sweetness with tempered sourness. Then, you will merely be scooped out right away. (Children in the Philippines will gently suck you first, though). For a week, your soft delicate seeds will be fermented under the seething sun, or on some days, in a dryer machine. As if for you being picked is a happy occasion, you ignore me then and now. Mind you, Dear Cacao, you will be sun-dried for one more week before your individual selves in the form of cocoa beans will be shipped out of Ivory coast or Indonesia.   Gerlie M. Uy Copyright 2015 *A poem inspired after reading Chocolat Here's my review on...

Chocolat By Joanne Harris Fiction Softbound, 320 pages A happy read. Especially on this Lenten season. If one has seen the movie first before reading the book or vice verse, I must say that it does not matter. Both versions are justice to each other. But in my case, I saw the movie first and then read the book in years apart, mind you!  Set in an obscure town in France, this novel with magical realism genre is all about spirituality, no mere religion, about the essence of doing good to our fellowmen that showing off goodness, about acceptance of our human weaknesses and surviving it. I expected some concoction along the way but I failed. I wished there are incorporated recipes on chocolate or some sprinkles of academic facts on chocolate but it did not. What it has is an engaging story told through the eyes gypsy-like Vianne who struggles to find a home, an acceptance by giving people their little sweet indulgence and Fr. Francis Reynaud who struggles about h...