Bunga Terong Pipit
Sparrow eggplant or Terung Pipit (in Malay), or also known as turkey berry, prickly night shade, Terung manggul and Terung Rembang; the plant grows well in the tropics. It is a wild plant that occupies empty land that’s just been cleared. It easily spreads through animals like birds and the tree can reach 1.5 meters in height. It has thorny, wooden trunk with neatly arranged leaves.
The eggplant’s flower is white and small, nicely lined up in a stem with a yellow middle that sticks out. The fruit looks like green berries and turns to yellow or orange when ripe. Terung Pipit as known in Malay, is a popular ‘ulam’ or salad eaten raw or boiled. It’s also great to be added into sambal.
In traditional medicine, its juice can be used to treat flu, runny nose or digestive issues. Its roots are also used for cracked heels treatment.
The dainty flowers of Sparrow eggplants when bloom will then produce the pearl like fruits hence the motif is named ‘Mutiara Pipit’. The motif is filled with feminine curves and curling movements divided into three parts – the leaf, the flower before it blooms and the flower when it blooms fully into maturity and bear fruits.
It is in a way demonstrating the stages of a woman’s life from young till she reaches her peak of beauty and continues to be of service at every stage. The motif captures the essence of female strengths and the values of a Malay woman.
Malay woman forms strong sisterhood and bond, soft, gentle, yet powerful – the driving force of the nation. Pure , yet exuding her confidence and joy from the core as seen in the expression of the original, flower with its yellow, upright middle part.
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