I was preparing a meal for myself in the kitchen when I heard loud popping from close to my house. It sounded like fireworks in the morning. When I went to the terrace, I saw a column of smoke from a neighboring garden. Nada Tarandek and one of her sons, Martin, were burning a tall pile of reeds that used to grow around their garden right next to mine. Having grown quite tall, the reeds started blocking the sun essential to the plants in the garden. But the popping sound was quite amazing. Pockets of air in each segment of the reed’s stem exploded when heated. This is the time of the year when everyone in an around Motovun is burning the unwanted plants in their gardens, fields, and orchards. This includes not only weeds and stems of harvested plants, but also unwanted branches of vines and trees. The ash helps with the next generation of plants, too. Columns of smoke are thus a familiar sight in these parts. But the sound of fireworks was new to me. My mind immediately wondered to Southeast Asia, where bamboo fires must be quite a spectacle. Given the strength of bamboo, the explosions must be amazing to witness.