ABSTRACT
The rice shoots are planted out in the paddies in the middle weeks of June just after the start of the rainy season, the ‘plum rains’. The sky is leaden. Drizzle falls day after day. Shoes are covered in mildew overnight and when the sun does break through, it steams up the damp from the roofs and the fields. It is an unhappy time for the townsman who uses his summer bonus, a month's salary paid in June in addition to his normal wage, to buy the odd drink with his colleagues after work and to brighten up life amidst all this drabness. But the farmer works on, for this is one of the busiest seasons of his year. He strips to the waist, goes barefoot and rolls his trousers up above his knees; as he stoops to press in a plant, the waters of his paddy reach almost to his thighs. He flings a bundle of rice shoots from the narrow pathway at the edge of the field to the workers in the water and the bright emerald flash stands out starkly against the dull background. Then, his plants once set, he prays for a little more rain; after that, for a hot, baking sun to bring on his crop and ripen the ears.
