My neighbor called his fruitful Black Walnut tree a “nuisance,” and I flinched, as if a dormant natural reflex awoken and jabbed a sharp pain in my chest.

No matter how long I’ve lived on this continent, or how acclimated I’ve grown to the American life, one culture shock I’ve never gotten over was how food, perfectly good free food gifted from Mother Nature, can be casually referred to as a “decoration,” a “nuisance,” a “weed,” an “invasive species”….or just plain “waste” in this land of overflowing abundance.

Perhaps it’s because where I grew up, we learned that “Một hạt thóc vàng chín giọt mồ hôi,” an old proverb that was ingrained into our moral foundation before we could even read. It means “One grain of rice is nine drops of sweat,” reminding us to never take even a morsel of food for granted.

Perhaps it’s because the very foundation of our cuisine, the glutinous rice cakes “Bánh Chưng and Bánh Giầy” that we begin every New Year with, symbolize our thank to Heaven and Earth for another year of harvest, for taking care of us once more.

Perhaps it’s because in our culture, and especially in our pious household, words are believed to carry energetic consequences just as much as actions. Thus, a repugnant pout implying ungratefulness towards the food we were privileged to have today would result in a reproachful frown from Mom - the same as the disappointing wrinkled brows that creases across Dad’s forehead when we absentmindedly threw a book on the floor.

And our ancestors were strict with their words, especially when it comes to food, because they knew that the availability of food is never a guarantee, and that we should never take for granted a blessing that is as transient as the rootless Water Hyacinths drifting along our moonlit tides.