When I was very young, I had this unforgettable memory regarding cassava or ‘ubi kayu’. At the time, I still remembered that I was in a kindergarden school. The image is vivid because at the time, I was the only one in the family who do not like to wear spectacles. And every time my parents tried to make me to ‘conform”, I’ll just runaway looking for lobak or carrots, especially carrots boldly inspired by Bugs Bunny. At one time, I ran out of options, and had to get the ‘giant brown poop’ and started to pretend it was a carrot. To the horror of my parents, I ate the cassava with the earth still attached to the skin. But it tasted good! It tasted good because my parents stopped convincing me to wear spectacles. When I was a teenager, especially during the 80s, baggy pants was a big trend of the time due to the influences from Hong Kong cinema as well as stage performers of the time. It was another form of rebellion against the norm especially in secondary schools. Malay friends wore tight green pants similar to the local music rockers at the time. For me, I wore baggy pants just because it created a wonderful ventilation system around my lower body wherever I walk. At the time, my parents often admonished, but at times they reprimanded me from wearing baggy pants to school even though my pants are in green color and in appropriate length. I was even interviewed by a group of teachers for becoming a student enforcer [ school prefect ]. I just answered the same way, great air ventilation system. I can understand why those teachers asked during those days as fallalery of the time are equal to gangsterism [ a lame excuse for not being obedient to teachers ]. I related this baggy pants situation here because during the 80’s of Malaysia, people [ the so-called adults ] are consumed by the will and ferocity of investment schemes and stock exchange. To custom make a baggy pants especially for school is not as easy as reading roman alphabets when it comes to making difficult decisions of balancing between aesthetics and ethical concerns. My parents always admonished me from buying “trivial” things and they always mentioned ‘ubi kayu’ because, “Why are you spending so much?? If you don’t have money, you won’t get a house, a wife and you will not have an easy life! You want to be poor when you grow up? You want to eat ‘ubi kayu’ everyday??” Many years later, my parents added cassava as part of our daily supplement with rice during dinner ‘because of its nutritional values’. A few years ago, I went to Ipoh [ Ipoh mali! ] with a group of friends to appreciate the beauty of its environment [ that is a few years ago ] and savoring the good and economical cuisine of taugeh chicken rice, kaya puffs and so much more. During one of our adventures around Ipoh, we visited the cave temples. As noon sets in an alarm clock for lunch, we went for one of the vegetarian canteens at one of the cave temples. At the time, there isn’t many people around the canteen. But we had quite a nice time looking the huge vicinity and ordered some food. In the end, I called out the canteen attendant and asked for minced garlic. The attendant retorted in quite a harsh way, saying that they do not serve any of it. At that point, I became quite puzzled by the situation. Then my friend told me about “Buddhists” do not eat anything that is grown in the ground such as garlic, onions, leeks, ginger, carrots or even cassava because it is forbidden. I was furious! It was a sacrilege if Buddhism is a religion! Buddhism do not teach people to follow its teaching literally, but to “think for themselves on what to do in pursue of happiness”. I felt very bad for those who preaches Buddhism, also preaches superstitious beliefs to incite fear and intimidation. I also felt bad for garlic, carrots and especially cassava being victims or subjects of propaganda and indoctrination of silliness and worthlessness in the name of “religion” just because of archaic and narrow-minded mentality of its hypocritical leaders and followers.