No language is sweeter than fruit
I always want to understand the language of fruit
I’m a fruit hunter
I look for various fruit around the world
Now mainly in the Southeast Asia
I grew up in a village of Henan
When I was a child
My family grew vegetables like eggplants and tomatoes
I was responsible for guarding them
Protecting them from being stolen
Although a piece of fruit doesn’t speak
It communicates with you in a very slow language
It’s just we aren’t in the same dimension
I’ve had at least hundreds of species of fruit
Basically I can recognize all
Show me a part of fruit
With obvious features
Either the fruit or the flower
I can recognize the species
A fruit hunter has a hunting list
Which is made according to month
December, January and February are the peak months
For example in Borneo
Now it’s the fruiting season of some fruit
But sometimes when I reach there
The last piece of fruit has already been picked
Or be eaten by monkey
It’s really miserable
No thing comes of the trip
Like when I see some fruit in the wild
I would test the taste first
And take notes
It has 3 carpels
It’s a type of Baccaurea ramiflora
It’s either sour or sweet
When you take a bite of it
The juice spread over your tongue
The fruit is communicating with your taste buds
Sweet and sour, very delicious
Then take pictures of it
To record the growth of the species
I would also pick some branches if necessary
As a sample
Kepel fruit is a magical species
If you eat the pulp
Your sweat smells like violet
And your fart is fragrant
Exploding cucumber
It’s unable to control itself
When the fruit ripens
It just breaks and throws itself out
I’ve also eaten a kind of fruit named Fissistigma oldhamii (Hemsl.) Merr
I knew it after I’ve had it
That it makes people lose voice
Sometimes I also meet crocodiles and snakes
It’s pretty hard in the wild
A fruit hunter not only searches for fruits in forests
But also in local fruit markets
In Thailand there’s Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
Experienced hunters know how ripe a durian is
By pressing the shell
Fiddling with the thorns
Also works
As for durian, around the world
There’re over 600 varieties
I’ve tried over 100 of them
Like in Thailand there’s also Maeklong Railway Market
You can learn local culture through fruits
Like in Thailand we have a secret garden
Which contains around over 5,000 plant species
From all over the world
Agapetes burmanica W. E. Evans
If you see some endangered or rare fruit species
In the wild
Then I might bring them back
Like Strongylodon macrobotrys
It’s very rare in many places
But blossoms here nearly all year around
Parrot's Beak Lotus Vine is rare
But the species here
It have 2 horns
Extremely rare
This is Giant Pelican Flower
It’s really big
Colorful and strange
Like out of earth
Either to hunt fruit
Or to take care of plants
I want to make more people realize the importance of plants
It makes it all worth it