Krip Yuson’s The Mountain That Grew is a brilliant metaphor for human restlessness and ambition

When the latest fad is released, many are immediately drawn to it.

 For instance, people easily abandon their current device as soon as the latest model comes out. The modern mindset is clear, out with the old and in with the new! Are we forever doomed to repeat the cycle of throwing away what we have in favor of what’s bigger or smaller, what’s more compact, what’s shinier, what’s newer?

Such thoughts linger in my head after reading Krip Yuson’s latest story, The Mountain That Grew.

 The story centers around Mt. Lariq on the fictional island of Manao.

In this throwaway culture, I hope the readers of Yuson’s The Mountain that Grew learn to cherish what they have before setting it aside to pursue whatever is new or potentially new or even only possibly new out there.

 Each year, its residents leave the island in hopes of making it big elsewhere. Such is the norm until one of its inhabitants, Ka Liser, notices the mountain starting to grow taller. This phenomenon leads people back to the island, pursuing the peak of the mountain as it grows taller each day.

 As the mountain reaches new heights, the people of Manao continue to desire to reach their own personal peaks. They leave behind the establishments they have previously established, focused as they are on a new, higher path.

 The same cautionary premise is present in one of his previous works The Boy Who Ate Stars, which centers on a boy who trades in the destruction of a forest to fulfill his desire to eat all the stars.

 Both stories do well in portraying how human desire can easily turn into greed. With every peak that we reach, we are left wanting a new altitude. Is there no limit to our desires? Is there no way to satisfy these cravings of ours?

 “The first draft of this story was written over a decade ago, probably even two decades,” says Yuson at the launch of the book at the University Hotel at UP Diliman.

 Yuson’s work is clearly a product of imagination skillfully crafted in the course of many years.

Illustrations from freelance illustrator Ilana Antonio and painter Marcel Antonio help further bring this story to life. Every turn of the page feels exciting, with visuals that move and bring the senses to a certain high.

In this throwaway culture, I hope the readers of Yuson’s The Mountain that Grew learn to cherish what they have before setting it aside to pursue whatever is new or potentially new or even only possibly new out there.

 The Mountain that Grew is published by San Anselmo Publications. Check it out on Facebook.com/SanAnselmoPress.