Durians are Not the Only Fruit: Notes From the Tropics
Wong Yoon Wah
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2013
ISBN: 9789810766702

In this mix of memoir, lyric essay and nature writing, Wong Yoon Wah takes the unusual approach of turning his gaze away from the people of Nanyang, and examining instead what surrounds us: the fruits we grow, the food we eat, the trees and animals that thrive in our midst. Along the way, he throws us fascinating cultural insights: how thunder tea rice, which contains neither thunder nor tea, acquired its name; how early settlers used the raintree to tell the time; how the behaviour of ants can tell us when a monsoon is about to arrive. Throughout, Wong explores the myths and seduction of Singapore and Malaysia's tropical rainforest landscape and the rubber plantations of his childhood, getting at the very essence of humans' profound attachment to place.