HIS PHILOSOPHY
Geswani professed a philosophy. It was homegrown and independently formulated. Its implementation bore fruit in his lifetime and laid a foundation for long-term benefits.
Without knowing it, Geswani initiated the philosophy of Confucius, the ancient Chinese sage, who lived from 551 to 479 B.C. Confucius was variously quoted as follows:
“If you think of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” www.brainyquote.com/quotes/confucius
“If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children.” www.goodreads.com/quotes/79127
As a farmer, Geswani cultivated many crops, including annual food crops. Maize dominated the staples that he farmed. He grew the following starchy staples in order of priority: yam, cassava, sweet potatoes, and plantains. He always incorporated beans, groundnuts, and Bambara groundnuts as legumes in the cropping system. Vegetables were his ‘quick wins’ as they were early maturing and could be harvested and sold in the Dzodze market biweekly. Local leafy vegetables, okra, tomato, and garden eggs were the crops that brought in cash while waiting for the others to mature. He took advantage of the major and minor rainy seasons to grow the crops above for family consumption and sale for money.
In those days, trees abound in the forest. Deliberate tree planting was uncommon. However, people transplanted a few fruit seedlings, here and there, around households and farmsteads. Geswani decided to pay attention to perennial tree crops.
While at Logba Tota, he acquired and cleared a dense forest in preparation for planting cocoa and coffee, which were lucrative perennial crops. But his ambition was short-lived.
Geswani received incessant calls to return home. His father’s health, Togbui Adukpo, chief of Dzodze-Kave, continued to deteriorate with age, and the family expected all four sons home to care for the old man. Home he returned, but not without some cocoa and coffee seedlings. He planted them at Avega, a forest area close to Tadzewu. But the drier Avega ecology contrasted sharply with the hot, humid climate at Logba, so the crops withered.
Nonetheless, Geswani’s philosopher instinct made him choose two crops in his medium-term life plan. He adopted pineapple and oil palm, which he planted on the land and in his heart and mind.
Geswani’s century-long plan was rather simple. As he did not acquire a formal education, his set plans were: i. his children should, at least, acquire basic education; ii. His first-generation grandchildren should, at least, have secondary education; and iii. His second-generation grandchildren, i.e., his great-grandchildren, should acquire tertiary education.
Geswani applied and made Confucius’s philosophy his own. How did he do it? Please read the next episode.
Timeless clean perfu
