Mulberry fruit

□ Ji Honglin

Early in the morning, go to the wet market and see an old man in the countryside selling mulberries.

Mulberries were squeezed into one basin after another, one by one, dark and shiny, like the eyes of a country girl's black jewel, and like the purple-black face of a farmer.

I bought some and tasted it, and there was sour in the sweet and sweet in the sour.

When we were young, we called mulberry tree fruit. Mulberry fruit, how simple and clear the name, like the milk name of a country child, is called smoothly and kindly.

In the countryside, mulberry trees grow everywhere, as if they were besieging the city and plundering the land, occupying one village after another; occupying section after section of embankment. It has become a beautiful landscape in the countryside.

Mulberry leaves, emerald green, heart-shaped, like a child's heart, how many dreams are contained there.

On mulberry trees, there is often an earthy yellow celestial cow, which bites the bark and leaves of the tree and sucks sap. We grabbed it, pinched its two long horns, and let it flap its teeth and claws, "creaking" out loud.

The villagers picked a basket of mulberry leaves, stacked them in a basin, rubbed them vigorously, and a thick green juice spilled out along the finger slits, accumulating more and more, more and more green. Adults and children in the village often wash their hair with mulberry leaf juice.

The girls untied their long braids and scrubbed them over and over again in the mulberry juice, and the long hair after washing became dark and shiny, emitting a faint fragrance. It is said that the hair is often washed with mulberry leaf juice, and there are no lice on the head and no boils.

Since ancient times, people have had the custom of raising silkworm mulberries. The poem "Mo Shang Sang" says: "Luo Shi Xi Silkworm Mulberry, the southern corner of the city of Cai Sang..." On the field path, there is a mulberry forest. At that time, the sun was shining and the grass was verdant. A young and beautiful woman stood under a mulberry tree, her face on her back, stretched out her fibrous hand, and picked one mulberry leaf after another. What a beautiful poetic picture.

Mulberry trees are very strong and suitable for making flat shoulders. Pick firewood, carry water, pick grain. The production and life of the peasant family can be separated from the flat burden. For them, the flat shoulder is like a steel gun in the hands of a warrior, always in his hand. Every household always has a few decent flat shoulders, and the owner's favorite is the mulberry flat burden. My uncle has great strength and can pick up hundreds of pounds in a load. With a strong body and a sturdy mulberry tree, he supported the family.

Of course, the children's favorite is the mulberry fruit. After entering the summer, the rain increases day by day, the sun rises day by day, and the color of the mulberry fruit is as deep as a day, from cyan to purple red, from purple red to purple black. Hungry people don't have the patience, often before the mulberry fruit is ripe, we climb up the tree and pick it and eat it. Although it is a little sour, it is still delicious to eat.

When I go to school, I often pass by neighboring villages. There was a family whose mulberry tree was very tall, and the fruit was large and sweet. Those purple-black purple-black fruits hung from the branches and shone like black gemstones, which was particularly attractive. We took off our shoes and quietly climbed up the tree, picking them one by one and eating them vigorously. The fruit was sweet and sour and tasted great. When we were full and slipped down the tree, we found that our shoes were missing. It turned out that the owner of the house had taken our shoes. We had to come to the door with hippie smiles and beg. In fact, the owner is not stingy with the mulberry fruit of his house, but is worried about falling on us.

Every time before going out, my mother always told me not to climb the tree to pick fruit. I said yes, but I forgot when I stepped out of the house. Every time I ate the mulberry fruit, my fingers and mouth became black and black, and I couldn't wash it. As soon as I got home, I was seen by my mother and naturally received a reprimand.

Mulberry trees are full of treasures. The leaves are silkworm feed, the wood can be made into utensils, the branches can be woven into baskets, the mulberry skin can be used as a raw material for papermaking, the mulberry can be eaten and brewed, and the leaves, fruits and root bark can be used in medicine.

In ancient times, the same value as the mulberry tree was the catalpa tree. In the poem "Xiao Ya Xiao Ben", it is written: "Wei Sang and Zi will be respectfully stopped." "The ancients often planted mulberry trees and catalpa trees next to their houses, and said that the mulberry trees and catalpa trees in their hometown were planted by their parents, and they should pay tribute to it. Therefore, later generations used Sangzi as a metaphor for hometown.

(Author Affilications:Traffic Police Brigade of Wuwei City Public Security Bureau of Anhui Province)

Source: Rule of Law Daily - Legal Network