DAIKO: The Mysterious Leaf in the Forest.

This life is a mystery and every day, we keep hearing different stories that keep us in awe and amazement. The truth is that most of the mysteries are mostly found in Yoruba land and when one gets to hear of strange stories, though they are interesting to listen to, one has to be careful too.

According to Yoruba culture, there is a Leaf called DAIKO which is a mysterious one that flips one anywhere. It is called Akwukwo in Igbo language. This means, when you accidentally or mistakenly touch this leaf or it touches you, the possibility is there that you will be lost for hours until you come to the consciousness of putting off your clothes and wearing them the other way round. Also, the person can regain consciousness if someone touches him or her by asking what happened. This leaf is said to cast spell on a person, leaving him or her in a state of dementia.

My question now is: how does the person come to do this, I mean wearing a cloth upside down if he or she is touched by this leaf and does not know anything again? So strange a world!

I asked my cousin this morning how one could identify this leaf to be careful and he said no one can identify it as it is unidentifiable but one has to be careful.

Something happened recently in the village.

I was feeling sick two days ago and slept on the long chair in the parlour. In my sleep, I was still conscious of what was going on around me as people in the house were talking. I overheard a woman who is also one of our extended family come to inform us that her husband had gone to the farm that day very early in the morning and hadn't returned around noon.

Everyone was confused and bothered because the farm he went to wasn't far. So what happened? At that point, someone told them it might be that Baba (the man) had been touched by the mysterious leaf or he accidentally touched it and was lost.

I woke up at that moment and wanted to understand more but the person saying it stopped and everyone was expecting Baba and there was no sign of him. It was after 2 pm, he arrived, so weak and tired. That was when he told everyone that he got lost in the forest. It was then they confirmed that he met with the leaf and got lost for hours in the forest until he was conscious after such long hours and came home. He felt sick since then.

I called my elder sister late that night and explained what happened. I haven't even mentioned the leaf to her and she knew what happened. My sister had lived in the village with grandma for years, since she was three years old, and she isn't a stranger to things like this. She also narrated an experience with the same story to me.

She confirmed that no one can identify this leaf and if mistakenly, you touch it or it touches you, till you trek from Nigeria to London, you will not know and if someone who knows such a person asked what happened, he or she won't be able to explain what happened.

She said two women went to the farm that day and were touched by this leaf, they got lost and trekked from our village to another faraway town. One of our uncles who was working in that town which is like an hour, thirty minutes if you board a car saw them and was surprised, asked them what they came to do, they couldn't explain what happened and my Uncle knew that something had happened and they have been touched by the leaf. He had to take them back home and people got to know what happened to the women. They would have kept going if my uncle hadn't seen them.

Baba was touched by the mysterious leaf that made him get lost for hours. Thank God he came home unhurt because my sister said she has heard of people missing forever without coming home except if God intervened.

I was shocked hearing this and the fact that one does not know the leaf leaves one in shock and scaring point because right now, I would have to be careful of any leaf touching me just as my younger sister said last night when I told her of the experience too.

Life is indeed a mystery and things are happening in the world.
I think I learnt something in the village already. Thanks to what happened that enlighten me more about the leaf. I should be more careful now 😂

Thanks for your time on my blog.