Multimedia

In a Tatler Asia interview last year, I was asked a very straightforward question: How do I become rich? How do I make tons of money? To which I responded, “it’s the wrong question”. To become rich should never be your goal. It’s the idea that you can build something from the ground up that is important. The feeling of accomplishing something out of your blood, sweat and tears should be your goal.”

In my column last week, I wrote about the Villar Farm and how we are raising around 50 carabaos. Sometimes I would get up early in the morning and walk around the farm for my daily exercise. I also take the opportunity to visit the farm animals there and enjoy the fresh carabao milk and other dairy delights. There is nothing like gatas ng kalabaw early in the morning. Our carabaos produce the most delicious milk and the creamiest kesong puti I have ever tried.

One of the very first drawings — if you can call it that — I made as a young student was that of an idyllic farm scene. In addition to basic drawings of fruits, vegetables and animals, I would draw a nipa hut with a coconut tree beside it and a perfectly shaped mountain on the background with a smiling sun just about to rise behind it and a farm on the foreground. This was our idealized version of a provincial life.