CEBU, Philippines - Members of the Kangkong Khernitz Club are gathered at the barangay gym. This time, they are to compete in a friendly “rap” competition. This involves the throwing of rhymes at each group, the way rappers would spit poems.
The aim is to raise a point. The goal is to educate young students as to the two types of kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk). There is always the question as to why it is called water spinach or water morning glory when the other kind grows in the upland, not in rivers or waterways and ponds.
Kiko began his poetic lyrics by informing the audience:
Kikay may confuse you in being water spinach
She grows on land like potatoes and peanuts
No broad, blunt leaves the way we wear ours
Her chin is as pointed as a snout of a mouse
The audience roared and gave Kiko a round of applause.
Chinky eyed Kikay stood up to take her turn:
Don't have to live in water to be best kangkong
Upland variety comes perfect with bagoong
We are more preferred as adobos or “apan-apans”
Versatile with bangus not just flashes in a pan
The excitement at the gym even got warmer as a bunch of Chinese kangkongs waved their hands at Kikay and shouted their hurrahs.
Kiko once again took center stage to stress a point:
What's “swamp cabbage” if it amounts to nothing?
Vines are to creep with hollow stems fast growing
Sweet, succulent stalks on wet grounds crawling
Perfect with meat and fish, to our life so enriching
But Kikay had otherwise to tell the public:
Upland kangkongs are richer in iron and calcium
Not contaminated with snails, colony of bacterium
We don't end up as fodder for pigs and cattle
We carry this honor like a knight on a saddle