It’s fully ripened. It’s delicious, nutritious and has a big smile. It’s old-fashioned and conventional but it is hard to find a more proper word than ‘plump-chestnut’. The chestnuts were roasted in the fire or boiled and given to children to be eaten to the point of being chubby. Besides, it made a job for the chestnut seller.
It’s very thankful and commendable. Even though it looks like it has just grown anywhere without special care, I can see the frugality of the mother of the chestnut because it is raised to be precious.
It protects its fruit with sharp spikes and the outer layer of the skin like armor and even inner skin which pricks the skin under the finger nail. Today, I am also under the protection of my parents’ devotion, love and the providence of God, the Father in Heaven, which can’t be measured. I hope to see the Lord smiling while offering such a ripe fruit.

Written by Sung-nam Jung ⅠPhoto by Jin Tak
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #452 (September 19, 2015)