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The Kapasanglay Tree

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There is this unassuming tree in our backyard- the kapasanglay tree, popularly known as kapok, or silk cotton tree, scientific name Ceiba pentandra (L) Gaertn. This tree has given us its white floss as filling material for our home-made pillows and which my late grandmother, Lilang Alli, did in her afternoon rest when light tasks could be undertaken at a leisurely pace . Most households had these cotton pillows before the commercial synthetic fiber-filled ones or magic pillows appeared in the market. When our kapasanglay tree has not yet grown to its behemoth size, we could reach for the dried pods by climbing or by using our sukdal (long bamboo pole with a diagonal stick tied with a string around its tip). We collected and laid these out to dry in the sun , cracked them open with hammer, smooth stone or wood. Afterwards we patiently separated the fibers from the seeds either by rubbing the pod’s contents on the rattan holes of the butaka (easy chair) or over the ya...
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Fibers and Prints: My Vision Of A Social Enterprise

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Background and Rationale: Through policies that mandate different sectors to use healthy, ecologically friendly, and sustainable products as answers to minimize the impact of climate change, many social enterprises have included environmental protection goals in their mission statement. Fibers and Prints aims to help marginalized women in rural areas not only become financially capable by training them to produce ecologically friendly and biodegradable pillows with the use of kapok fiber as filling and abel Iloco casing, but also instill in them environmental concerns. Kapok or kapasanglay fiber comes from the seed pods of the Ceiba pentandra (L) Gaertn., the common kapok tree found in many areas across the country. The tree does not need irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides and grows naturally in backyards, mountains, and other non-agricultural areas. Since most of the women in the rural community have been collecting kapok fiber to use as filling for their own pillows, they are tau...
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