I was away from home when I was a teenager, first, to go to school, then to go to work, and get married. I have lived in so many places that I can’t remember all of them. However, there is only one place that always engraved in my mind: my childhood village. It is just a small village located about 30 km far from the center of Quang Ngai city, beside Songve river, one of the two largest rivers in Quang Ngai province. It is in a valley surrounded by many hills which helps the village avoid big storms from the sea. In addition, the village is also decorated by beautiful green rice fields. These are all things that make me have a lot of gorgeous memories, and they always give me a sense of peace when I think about it.
I really love this Song Ve river. It is shaped like a giant snake crawling. Green bamboo trees are planted along the banks of the river to protect the soil from being eroded and make the landscape of the river become fresh. There are many white sand beaches along the river where boys often play football every afternoon. The river is full of clean water and flows all year round, so it is also a place for people to swim or bathe. I think all people in the village can swim very well, and of course, it is because of this river that I can swim very well without taking lessons. When I was young, I used to walk on sandy beaches on bright moonlit nights in the summer, enjoy the cool breeze, and feel peaceful. Many people like to take wedding pictures by this river because of its beauty. This river also has a very important role in providing water for people and cultivation. Moreover, it is also used as a means of navigation, and helps boats to transport goods. However, it also left in my mind some sad memories because of the deaths of the neighbors on this river. My friend’s sister died in such a case when she was 10 years. It was a noon afternoon, she followed her brother and the others to bathe. She swam not well, and water flowed fast, so she was swept away by the water without anyone knowing. After nearly an hour, we discovered and needed a lot of people help finding her. They finally found her in two hours and she died. This has made me more careful when bathing in the river or the sea.
In addition, it is not far from the village that are the mountain ranges as arranged alternately. These mountains are full of trees, grass, and wildflowers with a special fragrant smell. There are some trees with delicious fruit like guava and myrtle. Sometimes, I also gathered and brought it home. My friends and I used to be cowherds in the village. We used to graze cows on the grass on these hills, and these were extremely beautiful days of childhood. I had a special habit which was usually sitting or lying on top of the hill to watch the sunset. Today, the hills are covered with a kind of tree used to produce paper everywhere, so there is no place to sit or lie down to enjoy the sunset. Everything has changed a lot, and that habit is no longer. However, sometimes, I suddenly see yellow sunshine at the end of the day which makes me remember the village with the sunset.
Between the river and the hills is a rice field, and it is covered by the green of young rice and the yellow of old rice. When rice is young and the field full of water, there are a lot of freshwater crabs. My mother used to catch and cook them with oil, fish sauce, and sugar. Everybody in my family liked it because it was very delicious. When the rice field turned yellow, I could see many kinds of birds. They ate grain, and they usually flew in groups and sang very loudly. After harvesting, rice stubble was dried and then burned to make the soil better. When we burned rice stubble, it produced smoke like clouds and had a characteristic odor that is hard to forget. Today, the field is still intact, only the earthen trails are replaced by concrete. If I go back, I may find my memory for a while again, and wander in the fields to breathe fresh air and mix with nature even though I’m living in a place halfway around the world.
I always wish to return to my childhood village to find the pleasant memories of childhood, bathe in the fresh water of the river, breathe the fresh air of the deep blue field and take a walk through the hills to admire the wildflowers of the mountains and contemplate the sunset at the end of the day. Although I know that everything changes over time like a famous saying in philosophy that “no one bathes twice in the same river”, I still hope to find the feeling of the old days. I always feel proud and fortunate to be born and raised there. That place has become an important part of my life, and I am planning to return to visit it in the spring of next year.
