You may be looking for gold, you may be right next to it and never see it

This story probably applies to Yours Truly too but let’s see where it takes us.

The beautiful girl is married to a handsome man. Her father is sick and crippled from a long life full hard work and ups and downs but he watches the couple with great attention and his heart is happy and filled with warm feelings as he sees the perfect couple in the two young people. He projects how beautiful the grandchildren could be, how happy a household this could be. The old man observes them constantly. On the surface this is what he had longed for, for himself but he knows that to every life story there is a flaw.

He knows that his son in law wants the very best for his wife. He knows that the man will work endless hours to achieve his dream, which is to turn dirt into gold, make a mountain of it and built another Taj Mahal to his beloved wife.

The old man knows that his son in law will never tire, never relent but when his wife asks him “Why don’t you find a job” The assiduous husband always replies “ I love you so much, I want to cover you with gold and I want you to have a new home, the best cloths, the best jewelry. I will turn this dirt into gold...no matter what it takes.” And the old man sees his daughter overwhelmed with love, accept her husband’s answer with resignation while their savings are melting away. He sees his daughter struggle to keep the household afloat.

One day the old man calls his daughter close to him and says: “Your husband is an Alchemist” he announces. “ Did you know that I was an Alchemist too?” The daughter is surprised beyond words but manages to ask

“ Where you?”

“ Indeed. I must talk to your husband. We have so many things in common”

The daughter is shocked as she had no idea her father ever had any interest in her husband, in fact quite the contrary.

The next day the father and the son in law have a long talk. The son in law is taken aback by the tone of the conversation as he was expecting a scolding from the crippled man.

“ Boy! You really are on the verge of something big. Very big indeed, however, there is on little ingredient missing in your alchemy and I know what it is.”

“ Really?”

“ Yes, I do. I finally, after so many years realized what it is but it’s a tough cookie and I’m now crippled and too old to achieve it by myself. I need help.”

“ I’ll help you if you tell me” the young man cried enthusiastically.

“ You would? Are you sure?”

“ Of course I am sure, I have been working for years at that” the son-in-law re-assures the old man.

“ Okay, in that case let me tell you what it is. The secret ingredient is a silver powder that grows on back of banana leaves and it’s important that you plant the banana trees yourself for reasons that are beyond your understanding at this point… Believe me, after you plant them yourself and watch them grow, then you’ll understand why and how the silver powder is to be collected and how it will turn dirt into gold. It’s the secret part of this alchemy you know”

“ Wow! Father, thank you, but tell me, how much of this powder will we need to collect?”

“No less than three whole kilos” says the old man

“ My God, that sounds like a lot. I may need to plant hundreds of banana trees!”

“ Why do you think I couldn’t do it alone?” the old man asked.

“ Father…” the dutiful son-in-law said “… I shall do it for you”

“ If you do it for me, I shall be forever grateful and to express my gratitude I will right now lend you the money to start up what I couldn’t do by myself.” And he lends him enough money for the first few banana trees.

Sardonically the old man watched his tireless son in law buy more banana trees year after year and more land to plant more trees and employ more people to carefully brush off and collect the silver powder but in spite of his hard work and now thousands of banana trees, the son-in-law never quite achieves to amass the 2 kilos of silver powder he needed to turn dust into gold. But eventually one day he does and with excitement runs to his father-in-law “ I have it! I have it! Two whole kilos! Here it is!”

“ Great! Now, let me show you how to turn this powder into gold. Oh! But first, please bring your wife here. She is very much needed for you to be revealed the secret.” The old man said.

Although surprised by the request, the husband obliges and calls his wife in to whom the father asked

“ For a few years now, your husband has been collecting the silver powder from banana leaves. What about you what did you do?”

“ I thought I’d sell the bananas to make ends meet” she replies lowering her head.

“ What did you do with the money? Did you save any?” he asked

“ Yes I sure did” she says.

“ Let me see it” the old man orders.

The daughter runs to her nearby home, to come back loaded with bags full of gold coins which she pours on the floor.

Mesmerized, eyes wide open, jaw dropped, the son-in-law looks at the gold coins with total amazement while the old man painfully bends down and picks up a fistful of dirt and lets it run through his arthritic fingers on top of the gold coins to announce

“Congratulations, you are the best alchemist! You turned dirt into gold”.

So, on which banana leaves lays your Silver Powder?