TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - At a glance, this particular tree is no different from the other dead trees. The trunk is dry, the branches barren, no more leaves at the ends of branches, but the concrete fence, about half-a-meter high concrete surrounding the tree, has given impression that the tree is nothing ordinary.
Indeed, the tree is the second generation of Afo – the term for the oldest clove tree in Ternate. The first Afo is believed to be the oldest clove (Syzygium aromaticum) tree in the world.
"This second generation of Afo tree died about a year ago," said Syamsuddin, Head of Planning Department of Tourism of Ternate, when met at the plantation where Afo II tree had lived.
Afo II was located on the slope of Mount Gamalama, in Kampung Air Tege-Tege to be precise, about 5.5 kilometers from the city. To reach the location, we had to go on uphill small dirt road, about a hundred meters in length.
Syamsuddin said that, in its lifetime, Afo II reaches a height of about 16 meters and produces 200 kilograms of high-quality clove in harvest time.
Meanwhile, the first generation of Afo tree -- estimated to be around 400 years old -- was once located one kilometer away from Afo II. Unfortunately, this Afo I had died more than three decades ago.
"The first Afo tree generation was huge, reached 30-meter high, and its circumference can be embraced by seven adults," he said.
Mayor of Ternate Burhan Abdurahman regretted the death of Afo II that was estimated to be about 200 years old.
“Because it had happened, the next step that we can do is preserving the third and fourth generation of Afo Trees," he said.
It is safe to say that Afo is a witness of Indonesia’s, even the world’s, spices history. Because Ternate Island, alongwith with Tidore, Moti, Makian, and Bacan,were the only sources of world’s spices. Afo had witnessed the arrival of the Spanish, Netherlands, and British who fight each other to conquer the spice trade. Afo I survived Dutch’s effort to destroy some clove trees in the 17th century for the sake of controlling the price of this commodity.
Circulation of the world’s spices had actually begun long before the arrival of the Europeans to Maluku Islands. Even the discovery on the oldest archaeological finding about the spice was in a form of a ceramic container found in Syria, the Euphrates Riverside, and was estimated to dateback to 1700 BC.
Cloves had also been known in the Kingdom of China, at least two centuries before Christ. Reputedly, the emperor at that time requires all the officials who will face him to chew cloves first. Tempo had the opportunity to try the fresh cloves. Tempo immediately feels the sensation of spicy refreshing like mint in the first chew, plus a bit of a bitter taste and a strong clove fragrance. No wonder if thousands of years ago cloves chewed like refresher breath mints today.
All this time, the reason most associated with spice hunting are leaning on pragmatic ideas, such as to be used as food preservatives or medicine ingredients. But historian JJ Rizal says there are other reasons behind the popularity of spices -- so popular that it was then equal to the popularity of gold.
"In contemporary studies, earning money was not a priority at the time. Spices were sought for its mysticism, "he said.
He explained that writers and poets in the past built myths and reputations to spices that spices were the food of the gods, prophets, or angels in heaven.
"Spices are also referred to as aphrodisiac, that Aphrodite derived her perfume from herbs. Hera also described to smear her body with spices to lure Zeus, her husband. So there is a mysterious picture about spices, "he said.
Regarding the history of Indonesian spices, JJ Rizal regrett the negligence that had happened. In fact, this is one of the most important pieces of the Indonesian history.
"For example, until now, there is no representative museum about the history of spices," he said.
Ternate city administration is currently making plan to revitalize Oranje Ford to be a spice museum.
RATNANING ASIH
