Batangas

Rose apple trees grew in the backyard of my grandparents' house in Ibaan, Batangas, Philippines. They are not really apples. The fruits are bell-shaped and pinkish red.

Purple, violet, or lavender has been really my favourite colour since being a toddler in jungle-surrounded Ferry, Batangas, Philippines, in the 1960s, as my aunties wore lipstick and nails in that colour, and we ate "ube," a purple yam, which had that colour. Now, I associate it with the language Lojban, because of its creative energy.

In the 1970s, my family often vacationed in the more rural Ibaan, Batangas, Philippines, away from Metro Manila. There, I, my brother, and my cousins would anticipate listening to radio broadcasts of fantasy stories in Tagalog, during the hot days. My cousins lived in that town.

Vacationing in the rural town of Ibaan, Batangas, Philippines, during Halloween season in the 1970s, we children looked at Halloween paraphernalia from abroad, but we did not really celebrate Halloween. At All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, we visited graves in the cemetery.

In rural Ibaan, Batangas, Philippines, I was eating jackfruit in the verandah, as my Uncle Boy said that jackfruit would taste more delicious if I were speaking in Tagalog, insinuatingly than in English.

Born in the Philippines, my maternal grandmother couldn't speak good English, as for "Charleston Heston," she would pronounce "Char-less-ton Heston." Meanwhile, my paternal grandmother was the proud head of the English Department of a high school in Batangas, Philippines.

Born in the Philippines, I had the nickname Nonong, as my family intuitively knew that Orientalism imbued me from childhood. I grew up with the official name Victor like an Occidental in Batangas, Quezon City, and Lulu Island. Though I was nominally a Roman Catholic at birth, Buddha statues and wild bison attracted me as a child. Today, I am a Syncretist, but chiefly a Buddhist-Animist, and I believe in Science. I know that Buddhism is an advanced psychology and that biology can explain Animism. Of Buddhist kinds, I have encountered Zen from Japanese, Theravāda from Thais, and Pure Land from Chinese. Red Indians, Shintoists, Daoists, Oz Aborigines, Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, and other indigenous peoples have imbued my Animistic thoughts.