Sujono taps into a profession all his own

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A dark complexioned man lugs dozens of bamboo tubes tied with a plastic rope, a sharp sickle strapped to his waist.

He looks into the distance, his gaze piercing through the coconut leaves in search of something. The sun sinks in the west and a drizzle falls, wetting his body. He stops under a 50-meter- tall coconut tree and begins an agile climb, his hands and feet clinging to its stem. In a moment, he is already on the bough of the coconut stem and midrib leaves, cutting the manggar buds.

Sujono, 38, is a quiet man from Karagan, Kokap, Kulonprogo. Almost every day he climbs a coconut tree to tap legen, the sap from the palms.

A father of one, Suyono has no plot of land of his own and has been climbing trees to gather the toddy for his neighbors since he was 12 years old.

When many of his peers left to find work in towns, Sujono remained in the village.

To keep himself occupied, he continued to climb trees to help out his neighbors, such as widows. The requests increased and he found the job increasingly taxing. In 1987, he made a public announcement in the village that he would only tap the legen for payment because he needed to support his family.

Many villagers initially considered that Sujono was asking too much and was exploiting his skills for commercial gain. They objected to his terms. Eventually, however, they came to realize that Sujono's job was demanding and carried risks. The villagers, particularly the widows unable to tap the sap themselves, gave in to his demands.

Sujono spends close to 12 hours a day tapping legen. From morning to late afternoon, he climbs up and down about 150 coconut trees and gets his share of between 15 liters and 20 liters of legen.

Suyono prefers to be paid in the sap rather than in cash. His 20 liters can make three kg of brown or palm sugar. If the market price for the sugar is Rp 3,000 per kg, he earns Rp 9,000 a day. "I cannot accept my fee in cash because both sides need each other."

He said the key to successfully cutting the manggar depended on using a clean instrument. Dirt may cover the pores of the midrib leaves and therefore obstruct flow of sap. As many as three bamboo tubes may be placed in each coconut tree. They are tied to the stem and midrib leaves to collect the drops.

Usually, the tapping lasts from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., or about 14 hours, with the maximum quantity collected being about half a liter per tree. If the tapping is held for 10 hours, the maximum output will be about a quarter of a liter per tree. During the dry season, however, only 0.1 liter of sap can be collected from each tree.

To ensure that the flow of the sap will be smooth, the bud must be cut every day and washed clean with water. Otherwise, the liquid hardens and causes a bitter-tasting palm sugar.

"You can tap each bud of manggar for a month, or sometimes it depends on the fertility of the coconut tree itself," he said.

Bamboo tubes already used to collect the extract must be washed clean and then dried. Dirty tubes will contaminate any extract collected later, and cause an offensive odor.

An elementary school dropout, Sujono said tapping for sap was the only job he knew.

"I have climbed coconut trees since I was a child so I can hardly abandon this job," he said. (Ahmad Solikhan)