At around 11am, at rubber plantations in Tanh Linh district, we can easily see many people making a living by collecting rubber latex - also known as duckweed latex.
They diligently search for the remaining drops of rubber sap in bowls, on scrapers, under rubber trees, to bring home and sell to make money to support their lives. Most of the rubber latex collectors are women, all of them share the same difficult poverty.
Crackling, cracking sounds come from dry, rotten rubber branches, sometimes stepping on them, the sound of peeling off the remaining rubber latex on the rim of the cup and many other sounds and noises come from the activities of people collecting rubber sap in the endless rubber plantations. A woman in her 50s is diligently and attentively peeling off the remaining rubber latex on the rim of the tap and putting it in a plastic bucket worn on her body. Her name is Nguyen Thi Hoa, a permanent resident of Lac Ha quarter, Lac Tanh town. Due to difficult economic conditions of her family, having to raise 2 young children, she is the main breadwinner but often gets sick, has no stable job so she has to choose the job of collecting rubber sap to make a living. According to Ms. Hoa, collecting rubber sap does not require waking up at dawn, wearing a flashlight on the head like a rubber tapper, but collecting rubber sap is also hard and tiring. At around 8am, she has to prepare her belongings to start her job. Although the tools are simple, including only a bucket of duckweed latex, lunch, and drinking water. After preparing her belongings, clothes, masks, and conical hats, she got on her old bicycle, with a basket tied to the back of the saddle to hold the duckweed latex she had earned after a hard day's work. She followed a small, winding path through many small streams, then led to a vast rubber plantation as far as the eye could see. Arriving at the site was around 10 o'clock, at this time all the rubber tappers had finished their work and had gone home, leaving the quiet space for those who collect rubber latex. After resting and preparing her tools, Ms. Hoa began collecting latex. From tree to tree, row to row, and lot to lot, she did not miss any rubber tree, to separate the remaining drops of latex in the bowl, on the tap, and even the drops of latex that fell at the corner of the rubber tree were all picked up by Ms. Hoa and put into the bucket. Around 3-4 pm, the sun was about to set behind the rubber forest, and the water fern was already heavy on her shoulders, so Ms. Hoa arranged to cycle home. Every day she earned about 15-20 kg of water fern, 1 kg of water fern was sold for 12,000 VND. On average, she earned about 200,000 VND per day, depending on the price of rubber.
Ms. Dong My, from the Cham quarter of Lac Tanh town, has also been collecting duckweed for many years. She said: Although the hard-earned money she earns each day is only about 200,000 VND, it is very valuable, because all four mouths in her family depend on this money. Therefore, every day she regularly goes to the rubber forest to collect duckweed. On days when it rains heavily and people cannot go to tap rubber, she has to stay home and do odd jobs. On days when it is cloudy and rains lightly, she is surrounded by mosquitoes that suck her blood, making her itchy and miserable. In the Cham quarter, there are many people who collect duckweed like Ms. My.
In recent years, the price of rubber latex has dropped, some rubber plantation owners are no longer interested in rubber trees, some do not invest in care, some do not even bother to open their mouths when the harvest season comes, because even if they invest, it is only enough to cover the costs of fertilizer, medicine, and labor. However, people who collect rubber sap like Ms. Hoa and Ms. My still stick around to make a living. Because this is considered their main job and main source of income to support their family. If at the beginning of the season the price of rubber latex was only about 220 VND/degree, it has now increased to about 300 VND/degree. The rising price of latex has stimulated some plantation owners who did not open their mouths at the beginning of the season, but now they have hired workers to tap rubber to have a source of income. The increase in latex price also means the price of rubber sap also increases, this is the best news for those who make a living by collecting rubber sap. They are even more diligent to increase their income every day.
Tanh Linh district has an area of about 22,836 hectares of rubber trees, with an annual output of about 30,000 tons. The rows of rubber trees are straight, green, and stretch endlessly like vast green forests. The weather is already cold in the early morning, signaling the approach of another dry season. So in about 2 months, the rubber plantations will enter the leaf-shedding season, the plantation owners will have to temporarily stop tapping latex and the duckweed collectors will have to end their journey of making a living with the tree that was once known as "white gold". From now until the end of the rubber latex harvest season, the duckweed collectors will still be diligently peeling and separating the remaining duckweed layer every day, hoping to earn more than yesterday's duckweed and the amount of money earned will also increase to cover daily expenses and save a little to cover the upcoming traditional Tet holiday.
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