Gaharu plantation started off as a deal with researchers for 200 seedlings

According to legend, with an oath made by lovers under the Century Lover’s Tree, the couple will be blessed with everlasting romance and will not be separated from each other forever.

WHEN second-hand machinery dealer David Ho Kwan Meng first accepted the deal from a Japanese researcher to plant 200 gaharu or agarwood seedlings, with the condition that he had to wait 15 years before seeing any returns, his friends thought he had gone crazy.

Undaunted, Ho, then 37, was driven by stories about gaharu that he used to hear from his primary school teacher. The tales narrated by the teacher, who was originally from China, had left a deep impression on David.