Preamble:
Who would have thought that the grass that can be found everywhere in the wild will become valuable overnight? Once upon a time, the villagers were lucky enough to pick up a handful and happily take it home to cook soup and rice.
Now it is difficult to find an inch of grass, and the building has long been empty.
What kind of amazing plant is this, and what kind of legendary changes has it undergone?
Born on a cliff, fairy spirit
This amazing plant is known as the stone olive.
It is very common to grow on the cliffs of the old forests in the deep mountains of the south.
As a small herbaceous plant, the stone olive is extremely tenacious and clings to the cliff face.
It is evergreen all year round, with its pale green leaves and fruits standing out against the white-clouded cliffs.
Villager Xiaochuan has been herding cattle in the mountains since he was a child, and he often sees this plant.
Every time you look up at those cliffs, the verdant stone olives are like a little emerald in the mountain forest, looming in the white mist, which looks particularly mysterious.
He often wondered in his heart whether this plant was blessed by the mountain god to have such a flexible vitality.
In his opinion, the stone olive seems to really have a "fairy spirit".
It's no wonder, because stone olives also have a beautiful name – stone fairy peach.
Ogawa remembers that his favorite thing to do as a child was to lie on the back of a cow and count the stone olives scattered on the cliff walls of the road while blowing the crisp mountain wind.
At that time, the mountains and wilderness were still very quiet, and there was a refreshing verdant feeling everywhere.
The cliffs interspersed among the green trees are like green streamers, which are particularly beautiful.
"Babble—babble—" The long chirping of the cows echoed through the valley, echoing through a forest.
Ogawa often takes a nap in the shade of the trees, then picks a few stone olives and chews them in his mouth.
The flesh of the stone olive is hard, but it has a unique aroma.
He often reminisced about this taste, and always felt that it was mysterious and ancient, like a gift from the mountains.
In this way, the years were quiet, and Ogawa and Shi Olive spent countless unforgettable childhood moments in the mountains and fields.
Until one day, a sudden change completely changed the fate of Shi Olive and Ogawa......
Encyclopedia of herbs, highly praised
That year, Ogawa was already a teenager and often went up the mountain alone to herd cattle.
One day, he was amazed to find a large crowd of people on the mountain road.
Led by several men in suits, followed by young men with tools, all of them in good spirits.
It turned out that they were a scientific expedition team from the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and this time they went up the mountain to find medicinal materials.
These researchers found that in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", the oldest pharmacopoeia in mainland China, there is a record of a magical grass called "stone olive", which is known as "bird's nest in grass", which can be used as medicine to improve human immunity, which can be called the best medicine.
Unexpectedly, they learned from the villagers that such a national treasure-level "bird's nest in the grass" grows everywhere on the hills here! This made the scientific expedition team very excited, and they immediately began to busy collecting medicines.
Xiao Chuan led them to the cliff where he frequented, and saw steel drills and shovels pounding quickly on the cliff, and soon collected two large bags of fresh olives.
This was just the beginning, and the expedition personnel decided to live in the village and take people up the mountain every day to collect medicinal herbs.
Through the scientific analysis of the collected olives, they were surprised to find that this wild grass is rich in a variety of nutrients and minerals that are beneficial to the human body, not only does it not have any toxicity, but also can enhance physical fitness and prolong life, which can be called a miracle medicine!
They predict that once this peculiar "fairy grass" is introduced to the market, it will be popular among people and has great prospects.
As a result, the expedition team decided to speed up the pace of research and development of new drugs, and the pharmacopoeia and papers they wrote about the stone olive also caused a sensation in the medical community.
It didn't take long for this magical mountain grass to become famous and hailed as a national treasure-level natural medicine!
Overnight, it became a rare treasure
The miracle effect of stone olives soon spread among the people, and the originally unknown mountain forests and grasses became rare treasures that people rushed to pick overnight.
The villagers heard that this medicine can make people live longer, and they desperately went up the mountain to pick it, and the speed of the surge in quantity can be described as "endless".
At first, the villagers would distribute the olives they picked to friends and relatives in need.
But soon, the price of this rare medicinal material in the market soared to tens of yuan per catty.
In order to get more oil and water, the villagers took all the olives they picked and sold them for money.
Xiaochuan also followed the villagers up the mountain to "pan for gold".
The verdant cliffs in my memory are now bare and lifeless.
A small handful of stone olives that have been painstakingly scavenged back can be exchanged for a few hundred dollars.
This was unimaginable before.
Such attractive profits have made more and more people join the ranks of "treasure digging".
There are even local tyrants who directly take over the entire mountain and send people to search day and night.
There have been fights over the competition for stone olives, and there have been bloodshed.
Stone olives, which used to grow luxuriantly, are on the verge of extinction due to frenzied fishing.
Within a few years, the once ubiquitous stone olive had disappeared from the region.
And its market price is still rising rapidly, and finally reached a sky-high price of 60 yuan per catty.
However, the situation of supply outstripping demand has not improved at all.
At this time, Xiaochuan had already started from scratch and made a small fortune by quarrying olives.
When he counted the tickets in his hand, there was always a faint guilt in his heart—the crystal clear mountain stream in his childhood memories was now so dark that he couldn't see his reflection clearly; And those "little friends" who have spent countless wonderful times with themselves are now gone......
I can't regret it, and it's hard to find it
When the news reached the authorities that the stone olive was on the verge of extinction, the officials in charge hurriedly ordered a ban on over-harvesting and sent professionals into the mountains to investigate, count, cultivate and protect the remaining resources.
However, at this time, the mourning was over, and after searching the ground, they found that the stone olives that were once everywhere were difficult to find among those cliffs.
All that remained were patches of lifeless bare hills, and there was no life.
Today, Ogawa is a gray-haired old man.
Every time I pass by the mountain where I used to quarry olives, I can't help but have red eyes.
He knew that in the white mist, the verdant creatures that used to have "fairy energy" fluttering were now only dead and silent rocks, and they could no longer find a trace of life.
The mountains and wilderness of childhood can never go back, and everything quietly fades away when he is still too young and defenseless.
Most of the stone olives circulating in the market today are dried goods stored in the early years.
Although the price is high, it is far inferior to fresh stone olives in terms of medicinal effect and taste.
It's a pity that there is no fresh grass left.
People regret their greed, but regret doesn't help.
Fortunately, in some remote mountains and dense forests, there may still be a few precious stone olives, which have become the last gift of nature.
We should be grateful and in awe and do our part to take care of them.
Epilogue:
Are there any natural treasures in the mountains and wilderness that we have not yet discovered? We should cherish the mountains and forests and cherish the lives in them.
At the same time, we should learn from our own lessons and learn to live in harmony with nature.
Discovering and caring for the endless life around you may be the most beautiful scenery in life.