Buy me some rainbow

of red hot chilies for my coconut curried chicken 

 of hot pink salted duck eggs for my dipping tomatoes

 of green calamansi fruits to quench my thirst

 of some brown tamarind fruits for my "sinigang" soup

 of white "balut" for a night snack

of some tan-boiled peanuts for a movie date

of yellow green mangoes for a rainy day

of light-purple boiled sweet potatoes for an afternoon snack

 of green guavas to munch some more

and of orange turmeric roots for my tummy ache 

A Nation of Smiling Faces

Have you ever been to a place where people are so friendly? 

Isn't it such a treat to see all the smiling faces around you!

  

I didn't know their names but when I asked if they could pose for pictures,

they all gladly obliged with added bonus: their "wholehearted smiles" .

It doesn't matter who they were, what they did and where they were going,

be it a little child, or a grandmother, a group of friends or a passer-by,
a street vendor, school children, an office worker, even a pauper;

no matter what the time of the day was, in the morning, noon or night,

be it sunny or rainy, humid and hot;

Their smiles were free-packaged in different forms: 
big ones, little ones, bashful smiles and mouthfuls, too.

They all came with warrantees that one can return anytime, any day with no expiration,

no obligations attached for all those involved but surely will accept one in a flash.

So it makes me wonder when such is scarce and a luxury from most places I have been, 

here it doesn't take much effort to get one in a wink

  hence I am convinced that this place is a nation of smiling faces, 
with delightful hearts and sunny dispositions

 which tells me that riches here abound from inside out.
So my friends and all, be a nation of such to make our world a better place to live!

As the saying goes, "what sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. 

These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, 

the good they do is inconceivable." -Joseph Addison

All the pretty flowers in fall

these are some of the

wild flowers that

bloomed in my garden

this summer which I planned

to expand next year.