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The embankment behind my house

is covered with begonia leaves and

their buds which resemble small pink

seashells peeking out shyly among

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the leaves.
In my childhood I was suggested to eat
the stem of begonia and I ate it.
Yesterday I remembered this and I bit
a pale rouge stem. The juicy stem
tasted a little sour and had a flavor of
the memory of my childhood.

Now I remember I was always hungry

all year round, when I was a child.

Z
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I would bite green plums with salt,

would suck pickled sour plums tucked
in bamboo shoot skins and would eat
things such as the giant knotweed,
flowers of a rhododendron, bee larvae
and toacls. Everything that I put into
my mouth was gourmet food.

All the begonias on the embankment

behind of my house are facing
toward my house. They are nodding in
the autumn wind and rejoicing at
having a reunion with us after one year.
They love quiet places.