As I was walking and looking at the booths during the Agraryo 2007 held in Megatrade hall, ortigas, Philippines, I came to see this fascinating product. I first thought, it looked like a big pancake, but when I get closer, it was a big pandan pillow, big enough and strong enough to sit on.

Pandan (Pandanus) vary in size from small shrubs less than 1 m tall, up to medium-sized trees 20 m tall, typically with a broad canopy and moderate growth rate. The trunk is stout, wide-branching, and ringed with many leaf scars. They commonly have many thick prop roots near the base, which provide support as the tree grows top-heavy with leaves, fruit, and branches. The leaves are strap-shaped, varying between species from 30 cm up to 2 m or more long, and from 1.5 cm up to 10 cm broad.

“These pandan pillows are made from purely dried pandan leaves, inside and out! And what’s remarkable about it is that it was made by senior citizens of Luisiana, laguna. Only three families in the area are in this craft and there are only 3 senior citizens who are making it. Believe it or not, they are able to do 2 pandan pillows each, per day. But when the demand is high, the entire family join together to do the work.” Cited Ms. Nilda Mayamaya

These pandan pillows are very comfortable, cool to the eyes and to the body. It’s definitely a must have!

Together in this booth, I also saw a portrait of what they call “the Kitchen waste mosaic”.  It was an idea from “Mely”, a restaurant owner, thinking of a way to recycle the left over kitchen waste like chopped onion, garlic, fish scale, and bamboo. “From kitchen waste material, she was able to create art.” Cited Baby Jaine Felix, the Provincial Marketing Assistance officer of Teresa, Rizal. A nice way to clean up the environment, don’t you think?