The Legend of the Origin of Corn
A Timorese agricultural myth explaining the origin of corn (maize), a staple crop of the island. According to oral tradition, a severe drought struck the land, and a poor farming family was on the verge of starvation. The father, desperate to feed his children, prayed to the ancestors for help. In a dream, an ancestor appeared and instructed him to sacrifice his most prized possession — a single golden earring passed down through generations — and bury it in the driest part of his field. Following the instructions, he woke to find a strange new plant sprouting where he had buried the earring.