"Rice of our village/ Bears the July storms/ Bears the March rains/ Farmers' sweat pour/ During hot June noons/ The field is as hot as boiling water/ Hot enough to cook paradise fish/ Even crabs have to crawl to the shore/ Yet my mother walk down to plant the seeds." Tran Dang Khoa's poem, which embodies the extreme heat of summer, reminds those who have experienced those bittersweet days of the taste of their hometown's river soil, dip them in the village pond scented by blooming lotuses of a plenary childhood.