Sink over time Go Boi, a famous harbor, a bustling fishing village more than 400 years ago. This is the place where in the novel series “Con River in the flood season”, writer Nguyen Mong Giac describes it as an important saltwater harbor, an important focal point of communication with Dang Trong – Dang Ngoai, a place to receive migrations. From the North to the South, it was the place (along with the Thi Nai estuary) of the Tay Son Dynasty that sent naval troops to conquer the South to defeat the North. A tributary of the Con River flows at the foot of Banh It tower The side of Duong Long tower. Photo: TRUNG PHUONG Late in the afternoon, standing on Go Boi bridge watching the water of the Con River billowing, feeling strangely buoyant, seeing historical lines flowing layer by layer across the bridge. Remember the folk song that your mother used to lull you: “One day, no one will leave anyone / Only embroidery should be sharpened to make needles”, the lullaby voice sounds like a sad, sad Nam song. How much water has passed from the Con River over Go Boi Bridge, over the years has buried this historic saltwater harbour. And maybe it’s not economical so people don’t need to dredge it, just let it sink over time. But the image of the gourd sailing across the country, from the Central to the North, to the South, even through Nam Vang (Cambodia)… will never fade in the memories of the people in my hometown. Going to Go Boi, one must remember poets Xuan Dieu and Han Mac Tu. Xuan Dieu was born here, used to write love poems about Go Boi and Tuy Phuoc: “Sleeping in Tuy Phuoc is to not sleep at night The crickets stay awake with me all year round Wake up the stars, wake up the branches At night, the homeland loves the scent of the land.” Xuan Dieu could not sleep because simply: “Can’t sleep because the strong wind blowing from the sea keeps reminding / When my mother was born / I breathed the fish sauce of thousands of Go Boi…”. According to Hoai Thanh – Hoai Chan in “Vietnamese poets”, poets living in Binh Dinh are often haunted by the moonlight. The moon in Binh Dinh was strangely beautiful, mysterious or strange, inspired by Che Lan Vien, Quach Tan, Han Mac Tu, Yen Lan… Even later, Van Cao went to Quy Nhon to play and discovered Quy Nhon beach. like a half moon: “Half moon/Night/Lying on the sea sand…”. Most of the talented Vietnamese poets and artists who have met in Quy Nhon, all love the mysterious moon, meditate in Binh Dinh, hanging loosely on the lonely Cham towers. Even Trinh Cong Son is still haunted by the ancient towers, “hearing the autumn leaves and the rain rustling the little heels…” (Old Diem). Watching the magical moon Han Mac Tu also lived in Go Boi, because here is still the grave of the poet Han’s mother. It is said that at that time, the mother and son of the Han poets went to Go Boi to cure leprosy for Korea but in the end failed, the mother was lying eternally in Go Boi, the child was lying down watching the fanciful Binh Dinh moon in Ghenh Rang… read documents that know Han poet has known Xuan Dieu since then, when Han Mac Tu wrote to Xuan Dieu: “I sent you my collection of poems, because reading your poems, I find my pain is greatly relieved”. The land of Go Boi also once harbored the famous poet Han Mac Tu. And his best and most painful poems were written in this land. Go to Go Boi, look back up the Banh It tower, up to Do Ban citadel, remember the poets Yen Lan, Che Lan Vien – the names that make up the famous “Ban Thanh four friends”. Yen Lan is not only famous for “Ben My Lang”, he also has many other important contributions in the process of modern Vietnamese poetry. In the memoir “Yen Lan – remember you forever” (Van Hoc Publishing House – 2001) by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan – the wife of the poet Yen Lan – has quoted Che Lan Vien’s opinion: “Yen Lan is talented, talented. special and very soon”. It is not because of friendship that Che Lan Vien appreciates Yen Lan so highly. Before 1935, when New Poetry was still a toddler, Yen Lan had unique creations: “Mourning triangle sails about her resting quietly The rhythm of delaying harmonizes to pat the island far away”. Or describe the afternoon sun of Sam Son: “Empty far away The roof is dumbfounded, poetic and touching Afternoon pigeon wings incubated all over the manor.” “Sorrow triangle”, “tempo of delaying harmony”, “poetry of stone carving”, “afternoon of pigeons” – language structures, shimmering images interwoven magically, as if Yen Lan just wrote yesterday or today. Che Lan Vien is from Quang Tri but studied and grew up in Do Ban, Quy Nhon. In 1937, Che Lan Vien published a collection of poems “Dieu Ruan” that shocked the piano. In an article, Yen Lan once mentioned this collection of poems: “In the afternoon, Che Lan Vien and I often go upstairs to the East Thanh gate of Binh Dinh to admire the scenery and discuss poetry. Cham and Cham towers should discuss and write something together. Then Che Lan Vien published the volume “Diem Ruan” and me with the collection “The Well of Chaos” consisting of 28 poems written about the Chiem nuns…”. Han Mac Tu once read this book of poetry and asked Yen Lan why it was not a “well” (abandoned well), but “chaos”? Yen Lan asserts that it is a “well of chaos” (understood in the sense of chaos…). After reading the draft of this poem, Han Mac Tu was inspired to write the song “Moon commits suicide”: “Cold wells! Cold wells Why is no one good I heard that autumn hides here… Chaos, chaos, oh well chaos I’m panicking, I’m panicking Jump into the well to pick up the moon.” The song “Moon commits suicide”, Yen Lan planned to print in his book “The Chaos Well” as a preface, but unfortunately the poetry book was lost and Yen Lan’s poetic face seemed to be defective. In the last years of her life, Yen Lan also squeezed herself to make the quartet genre more attractive and more modern. With more than 400 quartet songs, Yen Lan is evaluated: Among the few great masters of modern Vietnamese quartet poetry, Yen Lan belongs to the “godfather” category (Truc Thong). Looking back at me Also, poet Nguyen Xuan Sanh was born in Da Lat but from a young age he studied at Quy Nhon National School (old), then moved to Hanoi. At the age of 15 (younger than Che Lan Vien when he was 16 years old when he published “Dieu Ruan”), Xuan Sanh released his epic “Lost Species”, with innovative poems of the type now commonly known as “postmodernism”. modern day”, breaking the standards of traditional poetry, with strange and “fragrant” sentences: “The white wind will smell the willow-shaped season / Far away from the pale green sad blue path…”. Now go to Go Boi to enjoy the coolness of the East Sea breeze, to look back into the past. Suddenly looking upstream, remember the castles and citadels of the Cham people, of the heroic Tay Son dynasty; looking down to the sea, remembering the rowboats that were horizontal and vertical for a while; remember the ships of the Portuguese and Spanish docked at Nuoc Man sea, now there is Xuan Phuong church, Lonely Song Village… And looking back at me, my age is already “sixteen years old”… Down there, how much water of the Con River is still flowing through Go Boi Bridge… Tuy Phuoc, February 2021

Bitter gourd… wild Bitter gourd has a bitter taste, that’s why many people can’t eat it, but there are also many people who get used to it… addicted to that bitter taste. Since ancient times, the use of this fruit has been recognized by Eastern medicine, which is the effect of tonic blood, does not contain toxins, promotes the detoxification mechanism of the liver, and clears heat for the body. Modern medicine also has many studies showing the effects of bitter melon on human health. Specifically, the vitamin C content in bitter melon is nearly 20 times higher than that of cucumbers; Eating bitter melon will help increase glucose metabolism, reduce blood cholesterol, strengthen the immune system, protect the heart … For those who are used to eating bitter melon, there is no need to undergo preliminary processing to reduce bitterness when processing. For those who are not used to eating, before processing, it is necessary to peel off the intestines of the melon, blanch it in boiling water, and wash it many times with cold water. By doing so, the bitterness of the dish will be much less and it will be easier to enjoy. About a dozen years ago, the source is unknown, first from a few sidewalk beer shops, a mannequin dish appeared, at that time it was called by the curiously-sounding name “crocodile crossing the river”. But actually, it’s a type that can be called salad or mannequin is not wrong. Bitter melon is thinly sliced, soaked in ice to make it crispy, the heart of the plate is left with a lot of ice, covered with a food wrapper, and on top is a display of bitter melon and shrimp. Bitter gourd soaked in ice cold water has a crunchy texture, and when eaten with salted water, it is delicious and especially not bitter. In addition, it is also possible to make a normal loofah mannequin. Bitter gourd salad includes bitter gourd, bell pepper, onion, garlic, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and vinegar… All ingredients are preliminarily processed, sliced ​​thinly and mixed together. The dish is especially suitable for summer people who want to lose weight. In folklore, bitter melon is always used by Vietnamese people to make food in their daily meals, in addition, bitter melon is also used as a tea to help clear heat. And according to research by Japanese nutritionists, bitter melon is a longevity food with nutritional value “full of flavor”. With simple processing methods, it will help us to have a simple dish and drink. The most common in the dishes from bitter melon is bitter melon stuffed with meat. This dish, in addition to bitter melon, also has minced lean meat, wood ear, shiitake mushrooms (you can have it but you can’t), pepper, dried onions… If you leave the whole fruit, cut it along the body, remove all the intestines of the melon and put it into a pile. meat that has mixed the above ingredients inside, otherwise it can be cut into small pieces, putting the meat inside the intestines. Bitter melon stuffed with meat can be cooked into soup, when eaten, sprinkled with spring onions or can also be eaten with tomato sauce to eat with rice. Nature’s gift Another popular dish from bitter melon is stir-fried bitter melon with eggs. Bitter gourd is gutted, finely chopped, sautéed purple onion, chopped with lard, fragrant onion, put the melon on a large fire, then break the egg and stir well. The high heat makes the cooked eggs entwine with the bitter gourd pieces. When scrambled eggs with bitter melon, the bitterness in the melon is minimized. It is also a stir-fried dish from melon that can be sautéed with beef, with pork kidney or fried with mushrooms for a vegetarian dish. Hanoi market now has almost all stalls selling strabismus. Fish bought with onions, dill, a little chopped chili, flexible fish can be stuffed into each chunk of gutted melon and then cooked in soup. You can also chop melon like stir-fry and then cook soup with scallions, sprinkle with scallions when eating. This is a refreshing and nutritious dish. Also with the soup, you can cook bitter melon fish soup. Ingredients include 2-3 bitter melons, 1 fish, green onions, coriander, spices, sugar, salt, pepper. Clean the fish, drain it, blanch it in boiling water, then take it out and let it dry. Bitter melon washed, halved, gutted, cut into pieces about 2-3cm as you like. Boil about 2-3 bowls of water and then put the fish in the stew. Tasting spices to taste. When the fish is soft, add the bitter melon and cook on medium heat until the bitter melon is soft. Season with spices, pepper to taste, then remove the scallions, chopped coriander, you can turn off the stove and scoop out the bowl. Similarly can cook bitter melon with shrimp. Raw materials include melon, cleaned and peeled shrimp, raw spring rolls with scallions, coriander, salted fish sauce just enough. Shrimps are mixed with raw spring rolls, pepper, salt and dried onions. Then leave for 10 minutes for the shrimp to infuse the spices. Boil a sufficient amount of water, when the water is boiling, put each spoon of marinated shrimp in the pot and continue to boil on high heat to bring the water to a boil. Cook until the shrimp is cooked to the surface of the water, then drop in the bitter melon. Continue cooking until the bitter melon is cooked, then season to taste and then turn off the heat. Bitter melon is also suitable for making braised dishes. Can store copper fish, bitter melon with soy sauce. Ingredients include carp or carp, carp. Big fish are cut into pieces, cleaned, put under the same layer of fatty meat or pork skin, the cleaned bitter melon layer is divided vertically into 4 layers, then the second layer, then the fish, add a layer of bitter melon and finally pork belly. , add cork sauce, a little water, salted fish sauce, and then simmer for about 1-2 hours. Braised carp with bones is the best. However, when it’s time to eat, the fish always runs out after the bitter gourd. If you don’t stock with fish, you can braise bitter melon with soy sauce, then add a few drops of sesame oil, it will be very fragrant, eat with hot rice, salty vegetarian can use. Bitter gourd can also be sliced ​​thin, dried and then boiled in boiling water to drink like tea. Bitter gourd tea has a detoxifying effect, very good for health.

Khanh Hoa newspaper reported, after more than 1 year appearing in Khanh Hoa, Japanese gourd proved to be very suitable and a good choice in the process of crop transformation of farmers. Mr. Paul Edward, Director of Capsi Food Company Limited – an enterprise that has planted 340 Japanese gourds, said: After nearly 2 months of planting, the trees have started to bear fruit. Each string can bear fruit continuously for 6 months. In total, one life cycle, one gourd gives 8-12 fruits, each weighing from 9-12kg. Not only in terms of productivity, in terms of proper care and technical process, the quality of the gourd is large and round. The gourd weighs 9kg. (Photo: Khanh Hoa Newspaper) After harvesting, the enterprise will process the gourd by cutting it into 3mm thick and 3cm wide strips, then dried and packaged. Part of it is sold to the domestic market, while most of it is exported to Japan and China. Country. Dried gourd fiber is used in cooking. It is expected that the domestic price of dried gourd fiber can reach 1 million VND/kg. Unique style of ‘putting money in a bucket, getting things in a pot’ during Covid-19 Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper reported that, in the face of complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, many home-based small businesses in the 7.2 ha temporary market in Vinh Phuc (Ba Dinh, Hanoi) have devised a way to put food in. The buyer then puts the money in the bucket next to it to limit contact and crowd gathering. People who come here to buy goods must stand behind the barricade, not be in close contact and must keep a minimum distance of 2m. Disinfectant water is placed in front of the door by many home-based small businesses for guests to use. Strange dish ‘crawfish on the tree’ of the people of Lang Speaking of Lang Son cuisine, in addition to humiliation, roast duck, and roast pork, there is also a rustic dish with the taste of the mountains and forests of the Tay and Nung people, but not everyone knows it, which is “forest shrimp”. According to Dan Tri newspaper, this strange dish is delicious, but the price is quite high, about more than 300,000 VND / kg and not always available. “Forest shrimp” clinging to trees. Called “forest shrimp” because this species has a similar shape to shrimp but belongs to the insect family. “Forest shrimp” has a small size, which is as big as an adult’s little finger. This species has locust-like legs, the whole body is gray in color, slightly pale. It is from their strange shape and habit of preferring to live in places with a humid climate, dense trees, or shelter in large tree holes that only exist in the deep forest that people give them a strange name. wild shrimp”. The sticky rice shop has a weird name but the food is absolutely delicious This sticky rice shop has the real name Xoi Man, but most customers call it “sticky rice mortuary”. Explaining the strange name, Mr. Luu Bao Minh, the owner of the sticky rice shop, shared on GiadinhNet: “In the past, the restaurant was located on the corner of Nguyen Tri Phuong and Tran Phu streets, but since moving here, it is located near funeral homes and shops. Selling boxes, funeral services, hospitals, so the restaurant is named like that. The sticky rice shop is a car with a glass cabinet that looks like a bread cart that is often seen on many streets in Saigon. The pot of sticky rice is mounted on a gas stove placed in the car, the sticky rice is always smoky. The shop only sells salty sticky rice. In addition to the main ingredients, which are sticky rice, sausages and cotton balls, there are also onion fat and fried onions to create aroma and round taste. Another plus point is that the shop sprinkles more crushed peanuts, creating a strange taste because salty sticky rice is rarely used by this ingredient. Another interesting thing is the unique way of eating, sticky rice will be wrapped in fresh banana leaves into long rolls like Tet cakes. Where guests eat, tear the banana leaves there, absolutely do not use a spoon. Strangely, banh cuon filled with broth in Cao Bang If the light rolled in many places is just a layer of powder coated, added inside with meat, wood ear dipped with fish sauce, Cao Bang rolls are completely different, served with a bowl of bone broth. Cao Bang people consider banh cuon eaten with bone broth as a specialty, a rustic breakfast gift for generations. When eating, the cake will be submerged in a bowl of soup with a little chili, sour bamboo shoots. Instead of sweet and sour fish sauce, Cao Bang rolls are eaten with clear bone broth with chili and bamboo shoots soaked in honey, so this dish is also known as “banh cuon soup”. This is a way to distinguish it from other regions such as banh cuon Phu Ly (Ha Nam), banh cuon Thanh Tri (Hanoi). The farmer who planted a strange jackfruit seed did not get enough fruit to sell According to Dan Tri newspaper, old farmer Nguyen Minh Trang (70 years old, in Vi Dong commune, Vi Thuy district, Hau Giang province) is known as the “father” of the red-fleshed jackfruit tree in the region. Mr. Trang was the first to bring this strange variety of jackfruit to the locality to plant, and also a seller of jackfruit seeds to his relatives. This type of jackfruit has brick red citrus, sweet taste, both chewy and crispy. On an area of ​​1.5 hectares of jackfruit is being harvested, each month Mr. White can collect up to 4 tons of fruit. Because the price of jackfruit is very high, at 70,000 VND/kg, Mr. White can pocket up to 3 billion VND each year. Ca Xiu – a unique specialty only in Kien Giang Ca Xiu is a unique specialty in Ha Tien (Kien Giang). According to Knowledge and Life, the appearance of ca Xiu is quite similar to bivalve seafood, but also like insects with long and large antennae. Diners, when they see the coffee bean, have a feeling of fear, not daring to touch chopsticks. Ca Xiu is a unique specialty in Ha Tien (Photo: IT) Not only has a fancy shape, this dish also makes people curious about its taste. When catching Ca Xiu, people bring salt similar to the three-knot salt. From salted coffee, people have created many delicious and attractive dishes. Strangely, the market in Yen Bai is priced at 5,000 VND According to the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, the “5,000” market is located along Highway 32 from Van Chan to Nghia Lo town, Van Chan district, Yen Bai province. Here, the highlanders sell agricultural products and local products at the price of 5 thousand VND. According to longtime traders, the market has been established for more than ten years. Because it has no name and has not been planned as a people’s market, people and passersby call it a 5,000-dollar market or a one-price market. Market 5 thousand is not only meaningful in terms of commerce but also a cultural address that attracts tourists near and far because of the simple, rustic and genuine human factors here. Hanh Nguyen (Synthetic)

Cat Hai district (Hai Phong city) is considered the capital of giant round gourd, many weighing up to 15kg. Not only has a unique shape, but this gourd also has a rich “unique” flavor. In front of Mr. Tran Hieu’s house (Nghia Lo commune, Cat Hai district) is a green gourd platform, which is both an income source and a hobby of his husband and wife. Mr. Qua said that at some point, his house had 40-50 gourd pods, all of them were big, and the big ones were small one after another. Mr. Qua used to go many places but found nowhere like big gourd like in the land of Cat Hai his hometown. When the fruit is about 2kg large, he uses a wooden piece to tie it on the truss as a support because the fruit grows quickly, stalks will not be able to hold the fruit. Until the fruit grew tens of kilograms in weight, his family cut and sold it. At the beginning of the season, Mr. Qua’s family sold 20,000 VND / kg, the price then fluctuated according to the market, sometimes down to 10,000 VND / kg. Traders come to their homes to buy and then bring them to the market to sell. Sometimes when visitors come to play, he brings gifts to people far away, the closest people can enjoy the rich taste of Cat Hai gourd. This is a gourd fruit that Mr. Qua has reserved seeds for, so that in June and July of lunar calendar, he will be elected to prepare crops for the next season. “This kind of gourd just needs a low trellis, about over 1m, does not like to stay high on wind. The gourd can climb on the truss or the roof. The gourd can be eaten,” said Mr. Qua. According to Mr. Doan Quang Chiem, one of the households with the largest potting area in Nghia Lo commune, the round gourd variety has been left since the time of his father, passed down through many generations. Previously, people planted pots to make pots to draw water to serve the production of salt water and fish sauce manually. In recent years, when the craft salt making in Cat Hai has eroded, gourd has been used for daily food processing. In order to get the wrong fruit rigs, each fruit is as big as the mouth of a cone, the farmers of the district put a lot of effort into it. From seed nursery, tree planting, tree care, scaffolding. However, Mr. Chiem said that many friends and his daughter had also brought gourd seeds to grow in other lands but were not suitable for the soil and climate, so the result was only 4-5 kg, but not as big as planted in the land of Cat Hai. Gourd Cat Hai has thick pulp, picked at the right time, the cakes will be delicious. Gourd can stir-fry with garlic, dip hot pot but the best is to cook soup with fresh shrimp. In particular, many Cat Hai people, when cooking this gourd soup, add a little amaranth rice, the soup will be very sweet. Although the economic value gourd is not high, the farmers here maintain planting and fertilizing year after year. Being charming with the giant round gourd from a young age, Mr. Chiem also worries about the risk of losing gourd varieties when the urbanization process develops rapidly, the land is shrinking, and only a few households maintain planting this variety.

Kiatisak’s teachers and students led the rankings from round 5 and maintained a stable position after 10 rounds of V-League matches. They definitely … relegated early, and had a championship spot after three more rounds. However, elected Duc still thinks that HA Gia Lai needs to improve many things and wait until the end of the season to know whether to be crowned or not. Voting Duc once accepted for the 19-year-olds to play the V-League despite losing the game. Photo: XUAN HUY It is easy to see that the German election after five unsuccessful football seasons with the players at HA Gia Lai Academy JMG has been very cautious with the promotion this season and does not want to pressure them with the view of “kicking for fun”. However, everyone sees the players under Kiatisak as molting from victories such as splitting bamboo against big competitors such as Hanoi, Viettel, SHB Da Nang that they used to “jealous of. “. “HA Gia Lai won like splitting bamboo in phase 1, nothing is sure to win” – Mr. Duc said – “Bamboo also has its eyes. Then there was a time when Kiatisak’s teacher and student also met bamboo eyes and stopped. We just focus on solving one game at a time. Winning is more fun, but I also feel that it’s normal to lose. Because from the beginning I decided to play to be comfortable first, not to put pressure on the kids. Now if there is a loss, HA Gia Lai also leads the table. So what should put on winning or losing to lose mind “. Asked if he regretted not inviting coach Kiatisak soon, elected Duc laughed: “Five years ago, 10 Kiatisak also” died “. In this world, except for me, no one has ever brought a football team under the age of 19 to play in the national championship. At that time, how good a coach was, he could only hold HA Gia Lai from losing to losing. I cheer the kids up for fun, but I know that they are not experienced enough and are not strong enough to claim championship. At that time, I bravely let the kids kick the V-League to help them learn, accumulate experience for themselves, but how can we win the championship. But if I don’t give the kids the opportunity to play on the field, even if there are many 18-year-olds, then go to the field to play football, where to kick? I accept for the kids to have defeat in the V-League, after five years. Is there a strong tree that doesn’t go through a period of immaturity and raggedness in the face of a thunderstorm? The more I let the player experience, the higher the resistance. Regarding Kiatisak, I have repeatedly stated that when I want to take it, I just need a phone call as everyone knows. Back then, the players at HA Gia Lai Academy were too young. Furthermore, I am in a “blood dry” period, I don’t have much money to do everything as I want. The main thing I chose is the right person at the right time. The children are only mature at this point, it is normal to meet a good teacher. Now I am free again, I keep closely encouraging Kiatisak’s teachers and students one by one, it is good to win, it doesn’t matter if you lose ”. Football has a large audience for fun Bau Duc said very honestly about his happiness that every match of HA Gia Lai, regardless of football field, attracts crowded viewers. He is proud to share the faces of Hoa Xuan, Lach Tray, Ha Tinh, Hang Day, Thong Nhat … in the last seasons reaching record numbers of spectators with the shadow of player HA Gia Lai. This season, the mountain town team with the new teacher Kiatisak attracts more and more viewers. Bau Duc confided: “Playing football without the audience is very sad! To be honest, if HA Gia Lai wins the championship without fans, and the football field is crowded with the audience, I will not be happy. For a long time, HA Gia Lai, regardless of the season, always competes for relegation, but has never been absent from the audience? Players have to kick so they can buy tickets to see, even sell out tickets and almost burst many football fields. I don’t want to make a trade, but between picking the championship in an empty stadium and running away from the relegation full of spectators, everyone knows which one I choose! ”. TT

The gourd garden of Mr. Ho Tan Linh. Dream several decades Mr. Ho Tan Linh (Bac 2 village, Tra Son commune, Tra Bong district) is known as a “veteran” in gourd plantations. Mr. Linh brought out a large plastic wrap, in which there were wooden pieces of many sizes. Selecting a small piece of wood, he lit a fire and said: “This is the stem of the gourd tree that has just produced oil, it is still” young “so it is soft and easy to rot, the smell is also mild. I tried hard to check, someone asked to buy but not to sell. Pieces of gourd wood with a slight fragrance were carefully stored by Mr. Linh. Mr. Linh’s garden has about hundred gourd trees over 20 years old. Almost all storms collapsed in 1999, causing it. A few years ago, a trader also asked to buy for 1 million VND / tree to pump chemicals to create oil, but he did not agree. “Planting this seed is planting the hope of a life change, selling them as much as possible, and then spending it all. If we leave it there, we still hope, if we only need 1 tree to create oil, we can get hundreds of millions of VND, many billions of dollars, ”he said. The holes drilled in the trunk of the gourd in Mr. Linh’s garden. Waiting forever without seeing the tree creating oil, giving off the scent, he hired himself to drill holes in the tree to lure the ants into the nest. “The same ant to live in, the tree will secrete oil, the depression is formed from there,” he shared. Like Mr. Linh, Mr. Ho Van Don (Bac 2 village, Tra Son commune) embraced the dream of a billionaire agarwood for more than 2 decades. When he was only twenty years old, Mr. Don roamed all over the mountains and forests of Tra Bong, climbed to the top of Ca Dam to “hunt” for gourds to plant in his garden. Mr. Ho Van Don has embraced the dream of a billionaire for over 20 years. “At that time, we all walked, but crossed the pass, crossed the stream, and searched the forest day and night to find natural gourds to plant. Each phase takes about 3 or 4 days, the lucky one can earn a few dozen trees, the few will only take a few trees. I can’t remember how many times I went to get about 100 trees in the garden ”, Mr. Don recalls. More than 20 years have passed, Mr. Don’s dream has yet to come true. In the garden, the amount of trees was gradually lost, part died from disease, partly due to wind storms. The sober, the one still dreaming Several decades ago, starting from the story of the forest goers changing their lives by winning incense, the gourd planting movement spread throughout the mountainous communes of Quang Ngai. Particularly in Tra Son commune, all the villages are growing gourd plants. Almost every house has planted, a few tens or even thousands of trees. But after a period of inefficiency, many people cut it down to switch to acacia, others still have hope. The movement of growing gourd had spread everywhere in Tra Son. Mr. Ho Thanh On (Dong hamlet, Tra Son commune, Tra Bong district) has been charming and pregnant since he was 30 years old. Deciding to play a “big gamble”, he bought the seedlings of 5,000 gourd trees, kept 1,000 trees for planting, and the rest sold them to neighbors. He calculated that with only about that many trees, 10 million after selling each tree, it would get 10 billion VND. However, after planting a few years, the trees will die massively, and the trees are dying and waiting for buyers. Three years ago, he sold 116 trees at the price of 55 million dong to a trader. They drilled holes for the drug to be transplanted, but now it is not able to create incense. Many trees have fallen due to a heavy storm. Storm No. 9 last year caused many trees to fall onto the roof, causing damage, but Mr. On has not bothered to fix it for months. As for Mr. Ho Van Chan (Bac 2 village, Tra Son commune), hoping to change his life through incense, he hired someone to flatten the garden to plant gourd plants. “There are only trees selling here, but never creating agarwood. I did not see the depression forever, the wind stormed again, so the trees fell all over, stopped cutting them down to plant acacia ”, he said. A gourd planting area has flattened. Meanwhile, after more than 20 years of waiting, Mr. Ho Tan Linh is still pursuing the dream of changing his life. “In this country, people always say: First ivory, second incense. If the tree is still there, I hope it remains. If we can’t eat it, our children will enjoy… ”Mr. Linh was sure. Mr. Ho Van Tien – Chairman of Tra Son Commune Farmers Association mused: “The fever of growing gourd has cooled down gradually over the years. Currently, people are still nurturing and cultivating, some people are cut off. Like me, I also cut down dozens of gourd trees because I don’t feel like I have to wait forever ”. According to the gourd growers, the process of creating frankincense from the gourd plant is the reaction of wood particles to external influences such as cracks, pathogenic fungi, … When an area is If it is damaged, the plant secretes its own resin as a way to dress the wound. The harmonious combination of resin oil and wood of the gourd tree has created frankincense. In nature, not all plants produce agarwood. Agarwood is usually found in trees from 10 years on. Agarwood has very high economic value and is classified into many types, of which type 1 usually ranges from a few hundred million to several billion dong.