- Patrick Campbell/Staff Photographer
Mrs. Chin-See carefully tends to one of her pimento plants.
Roy Sanford, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
IF 90-YEAR-OLD Helen Chin-See has her way, there would be more trees in Jamaica and every Jamaican would be appreciating the enormous contribution that trees make to the preservation of the environment.
For more than three decades she has blanketed her 49 acre farm near Falmouth, Trelawny, with trees too numerous to count. She has lost count really, but if that 49 acres of land with mahogany, cedar, ackee, pimento, mangoes, sour sop, etc., etc., etc., is any measure, then as she says, she has planted 'many'.
And it's more about the environment than any financial rewards.
"For years we have been demolishing our environment and destroying the trees," Mrs. Chin-See lamented during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner. "My argument is, if every Jamaican plant a tree or take seeds from any tree and throw them on any piece of land, by the time he or she dies, he or she will probably leave one or two trees behind."
In many ways Mrs. Chin-See can be described as an extraordinary farmer since she is more interested in the long-term benefits of farming, hence her love for planting trees.
"I love trees because I am basically a lazy person and I like long-term," she said with a smile. "You see, if you have a cash crop you have to weed, you have to water, you have to mulch endlessly but with trees once you nurse them initially they basically take care of themselves, and every year they will give you fruit, or lumber or whatever."
She remembered planting her first trees in late 1962 after she migrated to Jamaica from China. "I grew up in Beijing and it was really crowded. When we moved to Jamaica my husband bought a piece of land, so I started planting trees with seeds from a six pence sour sop. I got 39 little plants in condense milk tins and I planted them here. About four grew and they are still alive because I get fruits from them."
As the trees spread their branches and as their roots went deeper, so did her love for them. She admits though, that mastering the craft of nurturing her trees was not an easy one.
"I have made a lot of mistakes and I have committed a lot of sins against trees. But I learnt something and it is that when you deal with trees you get to know which tree require tender loving care and which tree don't need that. Some of the trees need to be babied others don't have to be."
Mrs. Chin-See lamented that very few Jamaican farmers are interested in planting trees as a form of livelihood. "Nobody is thinking long-term," she said. "Everybody wants their income to be fantastically big and immediate. That is our undoing."
Although she is now retired she still oversees the planting of trees on the farm. Only last year she received 150 seedlings of mahogany and cedar form the Forestry Department's Tree Planting Programme.
Mrs. Chin-See cannot walk long distances anymore but she relishes taking short walks through her cedar grove. "When I feel frustrated with all the unpleasant things of life, I unwind myself and make myself happier by going out and looking at the trees," she said.
She is encouraging young people explore the possibilities of planting trees as a form of livelihood.
However, she said, "We have to think of the future. We have to think of not only making a living but also of our environment. Without a healthy environment, we won't have a healthy Jamaica."
