When you wake up in the morning, you can hear the sounds of various birds.
When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, many small birds come to suck the nectar. I don't know anything about birds, so I only know that they are Japanese bush warblers, sparrows, and the larger ones are brown-eared bulbuls. They fly around the blossoms on the branches of the cherry blossoms right next to my room, chirping loudly.
The other day, a very beautiful little bird came right up to me. It had a blue chest and belly, brown wings, and two white lines on its black head. I wanted to take a picture of it, but it would fly away if I moved, so I just watched it closely and took it into my memory. I looked it up later, but unfortunately I didn't know its name. It never showed up again after that.

<Photo: Peach blossoms on the cherry blossom mountain in front of my room>

This reminds me of a book I read when I was young: "Silent Spring" (published in 1962 by Rachel Carson), which became a worldwide bestseller and had a great influence on me.
It is still read all over the world today, and many people may already know about it, but it is famous as a book that shocked and influenced many people, and begins by exposing the dangers of pesticides and chemicals, describing how the excessive use of insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals in America at the time had destroyed nature, to the point that even the sounds of birds could no longer be heard, even in spring.
This was also the motivation behind my decision to practice organic farming from the start when my founder and I decided to start arable farming here in the 1980s.
Now, as I listen to the lively chirps of the birds, amid the cherry blossoms and the late-blooming peach blossoms in full bloom, I am reminded that we must preserve this area's remaining pristine farmland, and its unsullied abundance, for future generations.
However, as much as this sounds like a nice thing to say, the staff who actually grow the crops on the ground have a really tough time battling weeds (there is no such thing as weeds), insects, disease and the weather, but everyone works so hard, yesterday, today, and every day, all year round.

<Photos of fields (onion field, wheat field, 2 vegetable fields)>

It's a beautiful view now, but as May approaches the weeds will grow rapidly and the battle will begin.

Shizu Hashimoto