Our Planet

Text : Saeko Imai

Currently we are growing indigenous cucumbers in our garden. Our daily ritual is finding the cucumbers, cutting them carefully with a knife and eating them fresh. I-kun was observing one drop of water that was coming out of the stem of a cucumber. It looks like it is going to drop.

“Look! There is water”, he said.
“I wonder what it tastes like?”
“Let’s drink it”, says S-kun, who is watching the scene next to him.

He takes his finger and puts the water drop onto his finger, very carefully and carries it into his mouth. Everyone looks at him as if they are saying “WELL!? How does it taste?!”. “Mehhhh it’s bitter” he says. “What!?”, said S-kun and he tried to put the every last drop of water onto his finger with a very serious face.

When he put the water in his mouth, he does not have such a bright face. “Ummmmmm…….. It’s bitter”, he said.
“I want to do it too!” “Me too!” all the children start to gather but there is no more water left. “All the water is gone”, the first boy said disappointedly.

After this we ate the cucumber we harvested. “When I eat the cucumber, my mouth says pori pori”, says A-chan. “Not pori pori, it’s shaki shaki”, says K-chan. It was the morning where we played with cucumbers.