Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Dawn - Child of Sunrise

 Dawn - Child  of Sunrise

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Old church of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 2017 

Dawn is the child of sunrise,
azure, crimson, emerald,
curtain of a new day, 
a call for all to rise.

Through the church's window, 
dawn joins the faithful

in their hymns and prayers,
alongside row by row.

Over the mountain range 
a reclining profile rises,
her gown of darkness fades 
and soon will change.

Like the dawn I'm a child, 
rising up as she rises,
to her ephemeral beauty
devoid of any pride. ~



 Cordillera Mountain and Old Church Profile 2017
 (Photos by the author.)

Monday, December 28, 2020

Synopsis of NOLI ME TANGERE In commemoration of Dr Jose Rizal's 124th death anniversary, December 30, 2020

 Synopsis of NOLI ME TANGERE

In commemoration of Dr Jose Rizal's 124th death anniversary, December 30, 2020

This national holiday in the Philippines is celebrated annually on December 30th. Known in the Philippines as 'Araw ng Kabayanihan ni Dr. Jose Rizal', this day marks the anniversary of the execution of José Rizal on this day in 1896.

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, "The Noli," as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province. - Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, Harold Augenbraum (Translator) Penguin Books

Dr Abe V Rotor
Former Professor, Rizal Course, UST, SPU-QC
Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)


Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisostomo Ibarra comes back to the Philippines after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Captain Tiago throws a get-together party, which is attended by friars and other prominent figures. In an unfortunate incident, former curate Father Dámaso belittles and slanders Ibarra. But Ibarra brushes off the insult and takes no offense; he instead politely excuses himself and leaves the party because of an allegedly important task.

The day after the humbling party, Ibarra goes to see María Clara, his love interest, a beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago and an affluent resident of Binondo, Manila. Their long-standing love is clearly manifested in this meeting, and María Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevara, a guardia civil, reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a rich hacendero of the town.

Noli me tangere (Touch me not), biblical source of Rizal's  novel, one of the world's greatest novels is ranked with War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Le Miserables by Victor Hugo, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas,  Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, among others. Noli me tangere, meaning "don't touch me" or "don't tread on me", is the Latin version of words spoken, according to John 20:17, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after his resurrection.

According to the Lieutenant, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a filibuster—an allegation brought forth by Father Dámaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such as Confession and Mass. Father Dámaso's animosity against Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out on a fight between a tax collector and a student fighting, and the former's death was blamed on him, although it was not deliberate. Suddenly, all of those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he got sick and died in jail. Still not content with what he had done, Father Dámaso arranged for Don Rafael's corpse to be dug up and transferred from the Catholic cemetery to the Chinese cemetery, because he thought it inappropriate to allow a heretic such as Don Rafael a Catholic burial ground. Unfortunately, it was raining and because of the bothersome weight of the cadaver, the men in charge of the burial decided to throw the corpse into the lake.

Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans; instead he carries through his father's plan of putting up a school, since he believes that education would pave the way to his country's progress (all over the novel the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries which form part of a same nation or family, being Spain the mother and the Philippines the daughter). During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elías—a mysterious man who had warned Ibarra earlier of a plot to assassinate him—not saved him. Instead the hired killer met an unfortunate incident and died. The sequence of events proved to be too traumatic for María Clara who got seriously ill but was luckily cured by the medicine Ibarra sent her
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosts a luncheon during which Father Dámaso, uninvited and gate-crashing the luncheon, again insults him. Ibarra ignores the priest's insolence, but when the latter slanders the memory of his dead father, he is no longer able to restrain himself and lunges at Father Dámaso, prepared to stab the latter for his impudence. As a consequence, Dámaso excommunicates Ibarra. Father Dámaso takes this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant father of María Clara to forbid his daughter from marrying Ibarra. The friar wishes María Clara to marry a Peninsular named Linares who just arrived from Spain.

With the help of the Captain-General, Ibarra's excommunication is nullified and the Archbishop decides to accept him as a member of the Church once again. But, as fate would have it, some incident of which Ibarra had known nothing about is blamed on him, and he is wrongly arrested and imprisoned. But the accusation against him is overruled because during the litigation that followed, nobody could testify that he was indeed involved. Unfortunately, his letter to María Clara somehow gets into the hands of the jury and is manipulated such that it then becomes evidence against him.

Meanwhile, in Captain Tiago's residence, a party is being held to announce the upcoming wedding of María Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elías, takes this opportunity and escapes from prison. But before leaving, Ibarra talks to María Clara and accuses her of betraying him, thinking that she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. María Clara explains to Ibarra that she will never conspire against him but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to her in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, María Clara, was born. The letters were from her mother, Pía Alba, to Father Dámaso alluding to their unborn child; and that she, María Clara, is therefore not the daughter of Captain Tiago, but of Father Dámaso.

Afterwards, Ibarra and Elías board a boat and flee the place. Elías instructs Ibarra to lie down and the former covers the latter with grass to conceal the latter's presence. As luck would have it, they are spotted by their enemies. Elías thinks he could outsmart them and jumps into the water. The guards rain shots on the person in the water, all the while not knowing that they are aiming at the wrong man.

María Clara, thinking that Ibarra has been killed in the shooting incident, is greatly overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asks Father Dámaso to confine her into a nunnery. Father Dámaso reluctantly agrees when María Clara threatens to take her own life. demanding, "the nunnery or death!" taken the shots. 

On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother   Basilio, who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the madwoman’s are to be burned...

-----------------------------
References: Light from the Old Arch, AV Rotor; and Wikipedia

   
Musical versions of Noli on stage and screen.
---------------------------------
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday, December 26, 2020

The Case of the Empty Chicken Egg - My First Experiment

The Case of the Empty Chicken Egg 
- My First Experiment
Dr Abe V Rotor

Childhood is full of adventure.

I was big enough then to climb and reach the baki (brooding nest) hanged under the house.

I found out that if I leave some eggs in the basket as decoy, the more eggs I gathered in the afternoon. But why leave some eggs that may become stale?

Then an idea came. With a needle, I punctured an egg and sucked the content dry. It tasted good and I made more of these empty eggs as substitute decoy in the nest.

My dad was a balikbayan. He settled down in our hometown, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, soon after finishing his studies at De Paul University in Chicago during the Great Depression. He put up a furniture business but was destroyed by the second world war. Our family managed to survive though and. Dad said, it is the greatest blessing to our family.

That evening after discovering the empty eggs dad called all of us and said, "First thing tomorrow morning we will find that hen that lays empty eggs.”

It was a family tradition that every Sunday we had tinola - chicken stew with green papaya and leaves of pepper (sili). Dad would point at a cull (the least productive member of the flock raised on range) and I would set a large basket upside down to serve as trap, and place some corn for bait. My brother Eugene would slash the neck of the helpless fowl while my sister Veny and I would be holding it until it became still. The blood is mixed with glutinous rice (diket), which then coagulates. It is cooked with care to keep it intact before the vegetables are placed.

That evening I could not sleep. What if dad picks our pet chickens? On the farm we call our favorite chickens by name. They were real pets like dogs and cats. I felt sorry, the empty eggs were the cause of the whole trouble.

The next morning after the mass I confessed to dad my secret and even demonstrated it. He laughed and laughed. Soon everyone joined the hilarious moment. And the case of the empty eggs was laid to rest.

We simply picked a dumalaga (pullet) and prepared our favorite tinola. "Bercio, please lead the prayer." Dad said. I did, sheepishly looking at the steaming dish.

Many lessons dawned from my first experiment. I also realized that one just can’t fool anybody.~

Acknowledgement: Internet photo simulates the image of story.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Ecology: Reflection of the Good Life

Ecology: Reflection of the Good Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

There are people who live happy and full lives while others do not. This leads us to look into the role of human faculties. When we talk of human faculties we refer to holistic intelligence. It is beyond IQ. It dwarfs the common concept of rationality. In fact, it defies definitions that scientists thought of plotting into various fields.
All of us are endowed with a wide range of intelligence which is divided into eight realms, namely:

  • Interpersonal (social intelligence)
  • Intrapersonal (meditational, spirituality)
  • Kinesthetic (athletics, dance, body language)
  • Languages or linguistic
  • Logic (dialectics, mathematics)
  • Music (Auditory art)
  • Spatial intelligence (drawing and painting, sculpture, architecture, photography)
  • Naturalism (green thumb, relationship with the Natural World)
These realms reside in both left and right hemispheres of our brain, with the left doing more of the reasoning and the right of creativity. How we live a happy and fulfilled life largely rests on how balance we use our brain, making use of these eight God-given faculties. It is also with this premise that we find peace with ourselves and with our environment and ultimately with God. Thus it is not only how much we are endowed with this gift, but more importantly, it is how we make use of it fully and in the right way.

Why don’t you make your own assessment? Rate yourself in each realm. Analyze your top three. Are you not proud of them? Look at the other realms. You may not have tapped them well. Do you realize that there is a big room of improvement, and that there are latecomers in this world?
Lastly, let me emphasize another component of peace, that of sharing. I can not find a shorter way to explain it more clearly than to present this excerpt from “How to Live With Life,” published by Reader’s Digest. To wit:

“Every human being on this earth faces a constant problem: how to make the most of life. There is no simple solution; the art of living is the most difficult of all the arts. But fortunately for all of us, experience can be shared. Insights can be learned. Wisdom can be taught. Experiences, insights and wisdom of men and women – from teachers to clergymen, housewives to scientists, ordinary citizens to statesmen - who have lived deeply, thought profoundly and cared enormously about sharing with others what they learned have found some fragment of truth that cushions the harsh impact of reality or brightens the marvelous tapestry of living. From them we find some answers to the most fundamental of all questions: how to live with life.”

Final Reflections
Let us
  • Reflect on re-creating Nature with the image of the lost Eden
  • Reflect on bringing the dead tree back to life.
  • Reflect that everything in this world is interconnected. Reflect on the lost lamb, the prodigal son.
  • Reflect on the new concept of heroes, hope of a tired Planet Earth
  • Reflect that our lives can not be ruled by the faceless side of
  • science and technology
  • Reflect on long life but one lived with noble cause
  • Reflect on that sailboat riding on the wave and wind towards a destination.
  • Reflect on the multiple intelligence which God endowed singularly to man and how we make use of it in gratitude to the Giver.
  • And if we think we are too little in this wide, wide world to make any difference, let this verse permeate in our thoughts and heart.
Cumulus

Rise up from the sea and come as rain,
wake the ponds, make the rivers flow,
fill the lakes, make the fields green;
the trees a curtain to hide the sun
a moment of your ephemeral beauty
of changing faces and a myriad figures;
delight many a child to draw,
to dream and grow;
and if one day the water of the sea is not enough,
drink, drink deep
from my little cup.




Rocky cliff against cumulus cloud, in acrylic by the author 2020

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Christmas Stories, Events, Jokes and Quotes

 Christmas Stories, Events, Jokes and Quotes

  • What do you call a kid who doesn't believe in Santa? A rebel without a Claus. 
  • What is the popular Christmas carol in Desert? Camel ye Faithful. 
  • What part of the body do you only see during Christmas? Mistletoe. 
  • What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.

Selected and compiled by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

 The small girl had spent the morning watching her mother do her Christmas shopping.  Finally, she found herself in a big chair beside the department-store Santa Claus, tell him her wishes.  "... and a big doll and a doll buggy and a doll house ..."  she finished the long list.  Then sliding from the chair and walking away, she suddenly turned back a pace, and called, "And charge it, Santa Claus!"
x x x x
CONDUCTOR: "You know darn well the distance between Chicago and Cleveland is the same as from Cleveland to Chicago. Any damn foo knows that."
PASSENGER: "I dunno; it is just a week from Christmas to New Year, but is it a week from New Year the Christmas?" 
x x x x 
A youngster walked into a bank the other day to open an account with $000.  The bank's vice president gave him a benign smile and asked how he had accumulated so much money.
"Selling Christmas card," said the lad.
"Well, you've done very well.  Sold them to lots of people, obviously."
"Nope," answered the little boy proudly.  "I sold all of them to one large family - their dog bit me."
x x x x
A mother took her five year old son to a mall to say, "Hello" to Santa Claus, who in turn, asked. "What would you like for Christmas, sonny?" 
"A bicycle, a football, and a pair of skates." the youngster replied promptly.
"I'll certainly try to see that you get them," said Santa. 
Later, the mother and son visited another mall and stopped to see Santa there.  Again the same question and the same answer, but Santa asked, "And are you going to be a good boy?"
The boy turned to his mother and said, "Let's go back to the first mall; I didn't have to many any promises there." 
                                                                x x x x

The alert boy of the household  much wanted a watch for Christmas.  The family has the custom of repeating Scripture memory verses at the breakfast, and by way of keeping them all reminded, he made frequent use of the verse: "What I say unto you I say unto all: watch." 
                                                               x x x x

If you want to be reminded of Christmas all year, buy your Christmas gifts on monthly payment plan. 

x x x x 
May the forgiving spirit of Him to whom we dedicate this season prevail again on earth.
May hateful persecution and wanton aggression cease.
May man live in freedom and security, worshiping as he sees fit, loving his fellow man.
May peace, everlasting peace, reign supreme.

10 Unusual Historical Events That Happened During Christmas
  1. Christmas Day, 1990, The Internet Gets Its First Test Run
  2. Washington Crosses the Delaware River in 1776
  3. WWI Christmas Truce Soccer Games
  4. USSR Invades Afghanistan in 1979
  5. Isaac Newton Was Born on Christmas Day
  6. Charlie Chaplin Passes Away
  7. Apollo 8 Reaches the Moon’s Orbit
  8. Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns as Soviet President
  9. The Song ‘Silent Night’ Is First Performed in Public
  10. President Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Soldiers
     ----------------------------------------
    The deadliest Tsunami in recorded history occured a day after Christmas killing instantly 150,000 people.The tsunami was generated by a 9.0 earthquake with epicenter at the Indian Ocean floor.  The movement of the earth's crust did not only cause an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0, but the displaced water caused a series of giant waves called tsunami.    
    ----------------------------------------- 

    References" JM Braude, Speaker's Encyclopedia of Humor; Prochnow HY and HV Prochnow Jr, Jokes, Quotes and One-liners for Public Speakers; Wikipedia;  

    * Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) Dr Abe V Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

    Tuesday, December 22, 2020

    Christmas Parol 2020: Two Faces of our Planet Earth

     Christmas Parol  2020

    Two Faces of our Planet Earth

    Indigenous  hanging chandelier by Dr Abe V Rotor

    The Pristine Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic on wood scrap by the author 2020

    Light in the air, swaying with the wind;
    Heavy in the air dull, still;
    Pristine, natural in the absence of man, 
    Defiled, dead, can't humans feel?


     The Defiled Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic on wood scrap by the author 2020

    Indigenous art, ecological in message, this piece of art tells to viewers looking up to this hanging parol and chandelier.  No candles, no light, no chime,  except the natural radiance and music of the pristine face of our Planet Earth.  

    So rare today this happy face beams, so commonplace the sad face shrouds cities where more than half of the world's population of  7.7 billion souls are ensconced in the so-called Good Life, the "ultimate" aim of civilization.  

    What is the Good Life in the current Corona Virus pandemic? Good life in global economic depression?  Good life in widespread poverty?  Good life in inequity and injustice?  Global breakdown of institutions, from marriage and family, threatening to destroy the pillars of human society? 

    What is the Good life in science and technology gone wild?  Good life in the explosion of knowledge, grain and chaff mixed up? Good life in erosion of values? Good Life in the failure of governance - local, regional, global? 

    We have yet to learn from "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome," and the Dark Age that enveloped the world thereafter. We have yet to learn from the Renaissance that followed a millennium after.  If only man's rationality can save him from his own destruction. 

    Light in the air, swaying with the wind;
    Heavy in the air dull, still;
    Pristine, natural in the absence of man, 
     Defiled, dead, can't humans feel? ~

    Monday, December 21, 2020

    Food Crisis Series16: Where have all our native fruits gone?

    Food Crisis Series16:  

    Where have all our native fruits gone?

    Dr Abe V Rotor

     
                                 Black sapote (Diospyrus nigra), Family Ebenaceae

    Where have all the black sapote gone,
    local persimmon children eat with fun?

    Where have all the native guava gone,
    the bats and birds and the young one?

    Where have all the sweet nangka gone,
    its fruits buried under the ground?

    Where have all the old piña gone,
    on the upland, sweetened by the sun?

    Where have all the red papaya gone,
    solo by name, the only of a kind?

    Where have all the pomegranate gone,
    friendly though like the deadly one?

    Where have all the pako mango gone,
    to cook the finest sinigang?

    Where have all the big pomelo gone,
    its rind made into jelly and jam?

    Where have all the red macopa gone,
    the laughing children in its arm?

    Gone to the genie everyone,
    technology’s child becoming man. ~

     
    Siniguelas (Spondias purpurea) Family Anacardiaceae; 
    macopa (Eugenia jambolana) Family Myrtaceae

        
                                       Native guava (Psidium guajava), Family Myrtaceae; 
                                       sampalok (Tamarindus indica), Family Leguminosae

     
    Pomegranate (Punica granatum), family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae; 
    camachile (Pithecollobium dulce) Family Leguminusae.

     
    Mabolo (Diospyurus blancoi), Family Ebenaceae ~

     


    The Ecological Literacy of Dr. Abercio V. Rotor

     The Ecological Literacy of Dr. Abercio V. Rotor 

    Rina Garcia Chua*

    Abstract/Summary

    The project was designed to explore the ecoliterate tendencies of Dr. Abercio V. Rotor
    through his eco-poems in the collection Don't Cut the Trees. Don't and related essays in his two other books, The Living with Nature Handbook and Living with Nature in Our Times.  The aim of this ecocritique is to analyze the following: how his ecological literacy shapes his poetry, how his poetry fulfills the goal of ecological literacy,  and why his poetry represents a significant contribution to the steps being undertaken to save the earth.  Tropes of ecocriticism are used to support the ecoliterate tendencies that are introduced, namely, place as a mutualistic environment interrelationship dismantling of disasters aesthetics of environmental justice.  These tendencies have paved the way for a more critical/concrete perception of ecocriticism in the Philippine context and a stronger link between and among three fields - literature, science and education - in the environmental debate.     

    This thesis has ecocritiqued the following areas of ecocriticism: the mutualism of no the and south environments in our country, the misperception of other animals and our interrelationship with them as species, the dismantling of disasters to bring forth survival through witnessing, and aesthetics and environmental justice in co-poetry as a way to testify against environmental abuses.  Rotor's ecoliteracy has consistently interpreted these tendencies through his eco-poetry with the use of his vast scientific knowledge, literary background, and educational perspective.  In doing so, he encourages sustainable thoughts which in turn can be actions and steps toward saving the earth.  Therefore ecological literacy has provided a link to utilize ecopoems for educational purposes to inspire and ingrain sustainable thoughts in readers.  This way, ecocriticism and environmental literature have contributed to the alleviation of the environmental crisis by being the voices of the unheard communities and their environments and by ecological frameworks in the Third World, where it is imperative to heed the call of environmental destruction and degradation.

    Rina Garcia Chua completed her degree of Master of Arts in Language and Literature, major in Literature from the De La Salle University – Manila. Her manuscript was awarded a gold medal for outstanding thesis and all of its chapters have been presented in international and national conferences. She has been a fellow of several national literary workshops and has been published in different journals, literary magazines, and books. She is the editor of the first anthology of Philippine ecopoetry, ‘Sustaining the Archipelago’, which is forthcoming with the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, and currently, she is taking up her MA and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies in the University of British Columbia.

    *The Ecological Literacy of Dr. Abercio V. Rotor
    Rina Garcia Chua

    Master of Arts in Language and Literature, Major in Literature
    Department of Literature, De La Salle University, Manila

    Thesis Adviser: Veric, Charlie Dr.
    Defense Panel Chair: Roma-Sintuari, Dinah, Dr. 
    Defense Panel Chair Members: Lua, Shirley, Dr; Groyon, Vicente Victor Emmanuel

    Recommended Citation
    Chua, R (2014).  The Ecological Literacy of Dr. Abercio V Rotor
    Retrieved from https://animorepository. dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4645 

       
    Books written by Dr Rotor, winner of Gintong Aklat  Award, and National Book Award, respectively. ~ 

    Nature Paintings: Transition, Golden Heart, Forest on Fire

    Nature Paintings: 
    Transition, Red Heart, Forest on Fire

    Dr Abe V Rotor

    Transition 

    On the road of change:
         the passing of time
         and seasons,
         and the cycle of life;

    Everything changes:
         key to diversity,
         impermanence, 
         and the essence of beauty   

    Red Heart

    Leaves, like the heart,
         turn gold before they fall;
    From youth mellow down
         to nature's call
    Like candle, brightest it glows
         before dawn. 


     Forest on Fire


    When El Niño strikes every seven or ten years;
    When loggers destroy and abandon the place;
    When kaingeros clear the forest for cash crops;
    When careless campers lave their campfires;

    When defoliants flush out enemies from their hideouts;
    When lightning strikes in the middle of summer;
    When squatters build homes clandestinely in the forest;
    When the forest is but secondary growth to an original cover;
    When a meteor explodes as in the Siberian phenomenon;    
    When the forest has been disturbed of its ecological balance. ~

    Sunday, December 20, 2020

    The surreptitious gabi moth caterpillar - master of camouflage and deceit

     San Vicente Botanical Garden

    The surreptitious gabi moth caterpillar 
    - master of camouflage and deceit
    Dr Abe V Rotor 

    Gabi moth caterpillar feeding on Caladium bicolor, a member of the gabi family, Araceae.  Below, caterpillar finds refuge from sunlight, heat and dryness, on the soil beneath its host plant.  Like most caterpillars it is nocturnal in feeding habit. Photos by the author at San Vicente, Botanical Garden 2020.
      
    Caterpillars are the larval of members of the order Lepidoptera. As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies are commonly called caterpillars as well. Both lepidopteran and symphytan larvae have eruciform body shapes. Wikipedia

    Colorful World of Caterpillars
    These are selected colorful, and quite often menacing, caterpillars, researched from the Internet, books, magazine, and other publications. Although limited in scientific description, this specimens may serve as a valuable guide for outdoor study, art and photography. To young artists, these and hundreds more awaiting to be discovered, are excellent models for drawing, painting, sculpture, and other applications in crafts and art. Acknowledgement is hereby extended to the valuable sources, the Internet, and other references. -  avr
     


    * Caladium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. They are often known by the common name elephant ear, heart of Jesus, and angel wings. There are over 1000 named cultivars of Caladium bicolor from the original South American plant. Wikipedia

    Book References: Philippine Ornamental Plants by Mona Lisa Steiner; Pocket Nature: INSECTS and SPIDERS George C. Gavin; Useful and Destructive Insects, Metcalf and Flint; Economic Entomology Manual, VJ Madrid and AV Rotor ~