Forest... At the Back of My Mind

Hmmm... I should have made the title: "Forest... At the Back of Our House."

It is so soothing and refreshing to be in the middle of a forest. The verdant scenery sends peaceful sensation to my entire being.

Whenever I try to imagine a peaceful scene.. I sometimes end up in the middle of the forest.... that our backyard offers.

In the province, I am grateful we still have a lot of trees.

With these photos, some experts and Filipinos who grew up familiar with these plants will be able to identify the names of these trees. (Try the game of 'Name the Trees!')

When I was a child, the saresa or aratiles is one of the favorites when it comes to climbing. Fruit so small like a cherry yet so sweet when ripe and bright red, almost maroon.

The santol and mango sometimes offers a very sour taste. When picked ripe usually of yellowish to golden brown color, these fruits from a santol tree in our backyard is so sweet.

My favorite is the young coconut or buco. The fruit is hard to harvest and very difficult to crack open in order to get the juice and meat. I practiced a lot of times just to be able to open one and has been doing it since then.


Guava or the bayabas has strong branches so ideal for climbing. Fruit is used in cooking native dishes and the ripe fruit can be eaten raw. The 'Y' shaped branch we use to make slings.

In the small Forest of our backyard is the good old kamias. With small leaves and is currently flowering. The fruit is Used in a lot of dishes usually for fish in sour kamyas juice. If it's in season, the tree can support the demands of the entire neighborhood.


The bignay, a tree that has nice umbrella-like shaped branches also has small sour fruits. But the fruit is also sweet when ripe and is black in colored.

The palm bunga tsina is so tall it towers over the other trees.. The fruits, when ripe is eaten by old folks before as nganga.


The sampalok or tamarind tree is a bit dark that looks like it has been there for a couple of decades. I have picked some young leaves from this tree for our sinigang and sinampalukan dishes.

Mabolo is also right in the middle of the mini-forest with nice thin branches and dark green leaves.




The star apple or caimito is really the star of the yard when it is in season. Fruit is so juicy and tastes almost like a sweetened milk.


Sometimes so sour.. sometimes a hint of sweetness.. that is the fruit from the guyabano tree or soursop.

There are still a lot of trees and some other plants in our backyard. Like the calamansi or Philippine lemon that bears fruit the whole year round. Plus bananas and suha or pomelo. In the thicker part of the forest, we have bamboo, pakiling (tree with rough leaves used to clean the pots), banana and other trees unknown to me.

A visit or a simple glance at the backyard is enough to give a fresh start, any time of the day. Even if I am away, our backyard forest is at the back of my mind whenever felt the need to relax.

Oh! it is really refreshing to be in the middle of our backyard forest as I took this photos.

One of the best things here in the Philippines...

Particularly in the province.

A Forest.

Not only in my dreams or in my mind.

But right here...

in our backyard.