Moringa's gift

CEBU, Philippines - Howdy, kiddies! Have you eaten your veggies?

I know that many of you – just like two of my grandsons - don’t like to eat vegetables because you find some bitter. Some have pungent taste. Some are sticky like saliva.

But you should keep this in mind, kids: Vegetables help your body grow healthy and strong.

One kind of vegetable you should eat often is malunggay or kamunggay in the Cebuano language.

It took the lovely Moringa from the dwarf planet Oleifera seven days to travel to our planet to be able to share her precious seeds. In her kingdom, she is keeper of precious seeds. These help the people, especially the children, there stay away from diseases like coughs, colds, fever and flu.

One day, Moringa learned from the angels that many children on Planet Earth suffer from whooping cough, from fevers that last for days, and even the horrible flu.

“If I could only share some of my seeds to the Earthlings,” she said sadly.

An angel heard her and then told her: “If I can bring you down there, will you be willing to plant the seeds yourself?”

“Earthlings don’t like to plant seeds because they don’t know. They are afraid of poisonous seeds,” the angel said.

“Yes, I will plant them myself. I will ask the Earthlings to give me a big place where my seeds can grow high – stretching out into the sky,” Moringa promised.

So, in a zap Moringa disappeared from the dwarf planet Oleifera and traveled seven days in a sphere-like vessel covered with green light. Together with the angel, Moringa came to Earth.

“It is such a lovely planet. But how sad are most of its children,” Moringa noticed.

“Many of them always get sick because of the food they are eating,” the angel explained.

“Oh! What do they eat here, dear angel?” Moringa asked.

“Burgers. Fries. Candies. Sweets. Hotdogs. Junk Foods,” the angel replied.

“Sounds strange. If only I can start to work right away, I would be able to harvest the leaves in time and let them eat all they need to make them healthy and strong.”

“That is, if you can make them eat your leaves. I think many Earthlings have very stubborn children who refuse to eat their vegetables,” the angel said.

“Then, I’ll stay here for a longer time until they will know my seeds and learn how helpful are my leaves,” Moringa replied.

So the angel went back to dwarf planet Oleifera alone. Moringa stayed here for some time to sow her seeds. Many parents saw her planting day by day, till they also learned to help plant the seeds.

Then, one day, a government doctor came to the place to check on the health of the children. They were found to be strong, healthy, energetic, and very smart.

The doctor asked the parents what the children eat everyday.

“Our neighbor Moringa has these seeds that grow into trees. The leaves can be eaten. It goes with soup, noodles, bread, omelet, even shakes and juices,” a parent answered.

So from that day onwards, a decree was ordered by the president of the country based on the doctor’s report that all children should be encouraged to eat Moringa’s leaves. This is to prevent them from always getting sick.