Panay Ricefields

I was a missionary in the Philippines in the mid 1990s. One of the things that I loved there was the rice cultivation. Rice paddies were beautiful in every stage. First, the paddy would be flooded, which made it look like a lake. Next rice seedlings would be planted by hand, looking like a large green lawn. As the rice ripened, the stalks would turn colors, such as orange, red, and yellow, just like fall trees. The field would be harvested, and the husks burned, and then the process would start over.

Most of the farming there is still done by hand, plowing behind a water buffalo, planting seedlings one by one, sowing seeds, harvesting with a scythe, etc. It was all very scriptural.

This painting shows a humid day after the rain, with different levels of rice cultivation.