THE HARVEST DAY

Tony Fernandes

Precis:

In Goa, at this time and season of the year there is a lot of anxiety and exuberance around, as the farmers prepare to harvest the paddy fields. This is the time for them to reap the fruit of their labour. At this particular time there is a high demand for field workers. Migrant labourers from the Western Ghat region are often seen walking along the major roads where the local farmers temporarily hire their services on a daily wage basis in the absence of local labour.

THE HARVEST DAY

Green fields turn to gold
September blue skies above
Clouds play hide and seek
What a sight to behold.

The brilliant sun and soaring clouds
That seem to wander and roam,
Casting intermittent shadows
Over every field, river, hill and home.

It’s time for the farmers to cheer
The quenched fields so calm
As harvest time
Is finally here.

Joy and anxiety abound on the farmer’s face
Ever so cheerful and eager
It’s time now to savour
The harvest of his labour.

Migrant workers with sickles in their hand he sees
As they as walk along the main street
He hires them for a day’s services
To cut the paddy stalks in the fields.

September mid-day sun high above
Neatly piled stalks of paddy slowly takes shape
Forming a perfectly circular crest;
Its peculiar aroma is in the air
As the workers pause for a little rest.

Hot lunch to the workers the farmer brings
Of rice, curry and fried fish
And no sooner they have happily eaten
Back to work with their sickles in hand they return.

When evening falls over my ancestral land
And coconut trees cast long shadows
Over the fields that were once so green
Now a giant circular pile of stalks of paddy
In the centre of the field awaits the farmer
For threshing into grains of rice some days later.


Tony Fernandes
Author of  “Goa – Memories of My Homeland”
MISSISSAUGA. Ontario L5V2C2
Canada
September 17, 2004

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