Rubber Tree, Jalan MempurongAminah Bte Ahmad, 68, administration officerThis rubber tree that stands in front of Petempatan Melayu Sembawang Mosque is the only surviving tree of an old rubber plantation dating back to the early 1900s. Madam Aminah, 68, who now works in the mosque as an administrative officer, lived in a nearby Malay kampung in the 1950s, and remembered playing hide-and-seek among the abandoned rubber plantation with her childhood friends.The area’s history is closely tied to the Malay community. Early records show that the land was once a Muslim cemetery that was cleared to make way for rubber plantations in early 1900s. By the 1940s, the rubber plantations were cleared to make way for a village to accommodate the increasing numbers of workers at the nearby Sembawang naval base shipyard. The kampong was later known as KampongTengah, which means the middle kampong.Today, there is one rubber tree still standing after multiple failed attempts at cutting it down. It has been left to grow on its own, unpruned, since the mosque was established in the 1960s. While some people have come to pray to the tree, Madam Aminah says, “To me, it’s just a majestic tree, it’s guarding the mosque.”There is one line at the back of the postcard:No.6A Very Old Rubber Tree, Jalan Memburong, c. 1900s
