Perhaps following the trend, areca palms are planted a lot in offices and resorts these days. Perhaps because the tree trunk is straight, without branches that need pruning, the leaves are beautiful but do not have a season to change leaves, fall dirty and take a lot of cleaning and sweeping like other trees. But areca palms do not have a canopy, the areca palm roots are large, long, succulent roots that absorb a lot of nutrients, so the land where areca palms are planted is often infertile, and few other trees can live near them.
The areca palm leaf fan evokes childhood stories of generations 6x, 7x
The ornamental areca palm only produces flowers, usually white and does not bear fruit. The Vietnamese areca palm has a smaller but sturdy trunk, stretching straight, the flowers of the Vietnamese areca palm when blooming give off a fragrant scent, the areca fruit is probably known to everyone, used to eat with betel leaves smeared with white lime on weddings or funerals (death anniversaries, house building...). Nowadays, the custom of chewing betel leaves smeared with white lime is gradually disappearing, I see very few places still maintaining it. When I was a child, the women, the "black toothed grocer girls", black but painful like custard apple seeds, were caused by chewing betel leaves. The betel juice seeped from the corners of the mouth, spreading along the crow's feet, looking very unique. Because of chewing betel leaves, in the past, even though women did not use toothpaste, their teeth were very strong and durable.
When the areca spathe fell down, I remember my grandmother picked it up, cleaned it, and tied it to the biggest round pillar in the house until it was no longer curled and dry enough to keep its shape, then she used it to make a fan. The part of the stem attached to the areca stem was the thickest and hardest part, like the fan's ridge, where you could hold it to create wind. The two thin and soft ridges were folded in, several holes were drilled, and bamboo strips were used to pin it in to make it neat, sturdy, and in the shape of a fan: tapered at the bottom and flared at the top. The widest part was slightly curved to create wind. The palm leaf fan in the famous poem "Thang Bom has a palm leaf fan" was the fan made from this palm leaf spathe.
The palm leaf fan in the famous poem "Thang Bom has a palm leaf fan" is the fan made from this areca leaf.
A areca spathe fell down
Those hot summer nights in the past, the image of a palm leaf fan waving all night to create coolness and repel mosquitoes is surely imprinted in the memory of many people of the 6x, 7x generation like me who were "born in the village". Back then, mosquito nets were scarce, the sound of palm leaf fans swatting mosquitoes in the middle of the night was a part of the memories of poverty, simplicity, and how dear and simple it was.
Besides the main function of fanning, the palm leaf fan has countless uses, not less than the CocaCola glass bottle that fell from the sky to a village in the classic movie "Even the Heavens Must Laugh". Palm leaf fans are used to cover drinking water and food to prevent flies, mosquitoes, or dust. Palm leaf fans become a farming tool during the harvest season when the rice is finished drying and needs to be scooped into a basket to pour the rice into the barn. The fan is like a paperweight on the desk of a teacher in the countryside (my father) when he is grading papers and has to leave somewhere, in case the students' test papers are blown away by the wind. The fan is even a gymnastic tool. I remember that when summer came, my eldest sister found two soccer balls for my brother and I. We didn't know how to kick them yet, so we used palm leaf fans, just tossing them up, catching them down, and tossing them up again. In the morning, doing a few dozen laps around the front yard was enough to make us sweat and pant.
The straight areca trees
If the areca spathe is not dried enough to be used as a fan, in the hot and humid weather typical of the North, it is prone to mold, and if it is dried too much, the fan becomes brittle and easily cracks. However, I have not seen any hand fan that is soft, tough, sturdy and tight enough to create wind like the palm leaf fan that is full of old memories. On the fan body, which is the inside of the areca spathe, there are sometimes interesting stories that are truly unprecedented. Some people hold a ballpoint pen and write all sorts of interesting things on it, others draw all sorts of pictures of flowers, leaves, birds, animals, rivers and mountains on it. I remember that on my father's palm leaf fan, a commune official, after drafting an official document, conveniently wrote with the same thought: Socialist Republic of Vietnam... and then wrote "TM Chairman of the Commune People's Committee..." below. My sisters and I, when holding the fan and reading it, asked each other what "TM" was, but we kept guessing and guessing but could not figure out what the abbreviation stood for.
The good thing about palm leaf fans is that after writing and drawing on them, if they feel old and bored, they can peel off the old layer to "compose" new ones. It is not monotonous like the bamboo fans sold in the district streets, which only have the same peach blossom or chrysanthemum shape, green or yellow color from the time of purchase until they break. Bamboo fans often break, and after a few days of use, they become sloppy. Most importantly, they are much less useful than palm leaf fans, and their main function of creating wind is much weaker and less effective, because bamboo fans are thin and open everywhere.
Besides making fans, areca palm leaves also have countless uses in making everyday items such as bowls, plates...
Just seeing a palm leaf falling on the side of the road, so many memories of a childhood, seemingly as old as a fairy tale, suddenly come flooding back. Now, the GenX, GenY or GenZ generations probably never saw or imagined what a palm leaf fan looked like and what kind of material it was. But deeply imprinted in the minds of those who have been away from home for a long time, just passing by somewhere and seeing rows of palm trees stretching tall and straight with leaves and bunches of palm leaves hanging down, in their hearts, a deep, burning nostalgia for their distant homeland arises...
