TIEN GIANG-Entering the harvest season, the picturesque green meadow in Tan Phuoc holds the photographers’ feet by the serenity of the countryside.
A picture of a meadow in the harvest season, taken by Tran Ngoc Dung (HCMC) with flycam during his photo shoot with My Tho’s Bui Gia Phu, in Tan Hoa Thanh commune, Tan Phuoc, Tien Giang in mid-August.
Tan Phuoc is located in Dong Thap Muoi, Tien Giang province, has natural conditions favorable soil for planting eagle grass. The district has over 100 hectares of grass, concentrated in Tan Hoa Thanh, Hung Thanh and Phu My communes.
Eagle grass is also known as eagles or eagles, which previously grew naturally in the Mekong Delta. The grass has a hard lower body, tube-like about 8-10 mm, horizontally in the mud. The vertical body is about 1 to 1.5 m tall and has brown flowers on the tops.
In the harvest season in August, people use crescents to cut the root according to each, cut it to another level, then perform dance to the grass to the ground. The grass is cut into short, long types, then tied in round bundles of about 2-3 kg.
Eagle grass is easy to grow, alum-bearer, less caring and less pests. Grass is planted for almost half a year until it is too high for adults to start harvesting. The grass is cut so that the root will grow again and again and does not need new planting. One day people cut about 300 bundles.
Exhilarating smiles of workers in the field. This grass was created by people in the West to make art products such as knitting cushions, making hats, bags … To make those products, after cutting about people use the machine to press, dry, then press again, and before the grass was pounded with human strength, using a pestle to break soft.
Mr. Thang and his wife spent some lunch right on the grass boat. The harvest season is hard but warm as they share work together and are always open and friendly with tourists and photographers on photography.
The mastery of the people when throwing each bunch of grass for people on the boat, transported to the big road for traders to sell. Newly harvested eagle is fresh if traders have not come to buy in time or meet rainy days without drying, people will expose to poles.
The boat is filled with picturesque grass as seen from above. For a long time, the grass has gone into the knife shift of Dong Thap Muoi: “Green flowers but also green leaves / I go to transplant rice for you to spit eagle”.
Boating people transported grass to the main road.
“The process of harvesting grass, bundles of grass takes place very often, along with the enthusiasm of the people according to our arrangements contributing to create unique and colorful photos,” Dung shared.
People hug bundles of grass on the roadside. Currently, the price of eagle always keeps at 15,000 – 20,000 VND per bundle. In addition, the grass stalks with a diameter of about 4-6 mm are also purchased by shops trading drinking water as environmentally friendly straws, replacing plastic straws. In addition to Tan Phuoc district (Tien Giang), bang grass is also grown in Duc Hoa district (Long An) and Jiang thanh district (Kien Giang).
Huynh Phuong/vnexpress
Photo: Tran Ngoc Dung, Bui Gia Phu