Tell-It Tuesday

Goha Finds a Garden

A retelling of a Moroccan Folktale

 

On a beautiful spring morning, full of sunshine and with a gentle breeze blowing, Goha wandered down the road, into a small village. People who knew Goha had two different opinions of him. Some thought he was a fool. Some thought he was a trickster who led people to believe he was foolish when he really was very smart. Goha did everything he could to keep people guessing about him.

On this particular day, as Goha wandered through the village, a wonderful smell came over him.

“What a sweet, delicious aroma! What can be making that smell?” Goha wondered.

He walked down the street, turned the corner and came upon a magnificent garden, overflowing with luscious vegetables. All the other gardens were just starting to bloom, but this garden was already in full blossom.

“Look at these gorgeous vegetables! My mouth is watering, thinking of how I could make a pleasing soup out of these.” Goha leaned down, picking a large cucumber and imagining how it would taste.

Goha was carrying a large sack, and before he knew it, the sack was full of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, lettuce, radishes, beans and peas. As he walked through the garden, he kept adding more and more vegetables to the sack.

The sack, bursting with produce, was heavy. Goha set it down and sat down to take a break.

He heard footsteps. Someone was entering the garden. Goha saw two feet in the row next to him.

“I am the owner of this garden,” said the man attached to the two feet. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?” The man stared at Goha and his overstuffed sack, brimming with vegetables from his garden.

“Oh, my!” said Goha. “A giant wind came up earlier and blew me here from the desert. Did you feel how powerful the wind was earlier?”

The owner of the garden had indeed felt a powerful burst of wind earlier in the day.

“Hmmm, yes, I did. And you are a small man so it could have blown you here,” said the man. He looked at the sack. “But, how did you get that sack?”

Goha looked from the sack to the man. “Well, the wind came up again when I landed here, and since I didn’t want to be blown around anymore, I grabbed this sack to hold me down. It is quite heavy.”  Goha patted the sack.

The owner of the garden thought for a minute. “I can see why you wouldn’t want to be blown around anymore. But, I have a question. How did vegetables from MY garden get into that sack?”

Goha shrugged his shoulders. “That, I cannot answer. In fact, I’ve wondered about that, too. But I have no idea.” Goha shrugged again and shook his head.

The owner did not know what to say. He simply wished Goha a safe journey home and walked away.

Goha went home with a sack full of vegetables and made a delicious stew.

People still wonder if Goha is a trickster or a fool.

 

What do you think? Is Goha a very bright trickster or is he a fool?

Make up your own story about a trickster in a garden.

Have a great day!

Peace,

Nature Mamaw

Images courtesy of Pixabay.com