Central Highlands rubber leaf shedding season

Article and photos: Son Nguyen

On Highway 14 through the Central Highlands, it was colder than usual in the morning. The rains of the rainy season had just passed, bringing with them a chilly atmosphere that made you wrap yourself up warmly while driving. I thought that the Central Highlands, where the sky and land are blue all year round without a single cloud, would only be cool, but unexpectedly I still had to put on a warm coat and scarf before continuing on.

The sky and earth were still deep blue with the golden sunshine pouring down, but the first rubber forest that passed by made me surprised and I quickly pulled over. It was still the endless forest with straight rows of trees, but the green of the leaves had given way to a yellow and red color. A rubber forest in the beautiful season of changing leaves made you think you were walking in the middle of autumn. My heart was in turmoil, I turned into the forest.

There were no shadows of workers collecting latex from behind the trees, only the silent rubber forest in the cheerful sound of the wind, the dancing sunlight and the rustling sound of yellow leaves falling under each step. I stepped on the yellow leaves, walking after the motorbike rolling ahead, carrying with it the red soil and the dancing leaves. The motorbike stopped, the whole space was dead silent, the trees were still in the early morning sunlight.

Spring is the season of new growth and green buds, but it is also the season of rubber trees changing their clothes. After nine months of growing and producing white sap, this is the time for this hard-working tree to rest and regain strength all year round.

The rubber season does not produce latex, there are no new cuts on the tree trunk, no hot white latex flows around the trunk. The latex bowl lies still on the trunk and the flows are concentrated in a thick brown color. The rubber tree sheds its leaves, shakes off its fatigue for the last time of the year, burns its remnants into a brilliant red-yellow color on the branches, before leaving itself to the red ground. Those last remnants create a beautiful picture for the dry Central Highlands, the rubber tree with its strong vitality, even when it sheds its leaves and branches, it still makes passersby stunned by the scenery it brings.

The rubber trees shed their leaves, falling onto the red soil, decomposing in the rain and fertilizing the soil and the rubber trees. The leaf-falling season follows the leaf-falling season, creating fertile soil for itself.

I have been through many rubber seasons but rarely stopped for so long. Walking in the rubber forest easily makes you feel the lack of oxygen because this tree is very poisonous, the sap is poisonous and the leaves that exchange gases on its trunk are also poisonous. Walking through the straight rubber forests on the Central Highlands road, the wind is always howling deep. The rubber leaves change, the whole forest shivers and puts on a new coat, creating a mesmerizing beauty. Another rubber season is coming.

The Thanh