Feature Video: A Seedy Love Story

Where It All Begins..

By Rachel

It was a depressing love story from a long time ago.

There was a great war in a certain country, and a brave man had to leave his wife behind to defend his homeland.

Every day, the wife would sit at the peak of a mountain crying, and praying for the safe return of her beloved husband.

Day after day she cried, till her tears ran dry.

Yet, it was not meant to be. He never returned.

She started to cry blood in place of tears, and those drops of blood became red-colored seeds as they fell onto the ground.

They grew into huge trees full of fruits with the same beautiful red seeds.

The seeds were then known as the "remembrance beans", as they represent the wife reminiscing her time with her husband and her longing for him to return.

This leads to the formerly popular tradition in Singapore, where people give a bottle full of saga seeds to their beloved other half, especially when the latter is going for distant trips.

Getting The Story

By J. H.

The search for the declining population of the Saga Tree was tough. But after liaising with various staffs from the Singapore Npark, we managed to find the specific locations of the Saga Trees in both Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park.

It was with the search of the Saga Trees and our potential interviewees in mind that we set off for our expedition on Friday morning.

We arrived at Fort Canning Park around 10am.

We headed for the park’s visitor centre straightaway, eager to start off with an interview. However, all the staffs were out stationed, attending some important event.

Undaunted, we went in search of the Saga Tree. We were fortunate to locate tree, capture some footage and pictures and also manage to secure an interview with a morning jogger.

After lunch, we proceeded to our next destination - the Botanic Gardens.

The weather was not kind to us. It started to pour heavily.

Once again, we were unable to catch hold of any staff for interview. However, it was not all for naught as we found out why Saga Trees are no longer suitable as roadside trees.

Hence, we decided to interview our parents and family members instead.