You see, in these hills, we don't call them 'secondary metabolites'—we know them as the plant's own *zaher*, its poison or medicine. They are the sharp taste, the sticky sap, or the bitter smell that tells a forager this leaf will fight you back if eaten raw. They act as the plant's silent army against insects and grazing animals.
I learned this not from a book, but from collecting *tendu* leaves; the young ones make you itch terribly, but after a monsoon soak, that defence washes away and they become perfectly edible. The theory in your cities calls it 'chemical defence,' but here, we simply call it the plant's wisdom—and our job is to learn its timing.
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