Maas Leety hard at work in St Andrew. - photo by Robert Lalah

Whoosh! An overcrowded minibus with a tattered Jamaican flag hanging on the antenna, whizzed by Maas Leety's chair. This got the otherwise cool character flustered.

"Oy man! Unnu gwaan gallivant! Yuh soon gwine meet yuh Waterloo!" the 60-something-year-old man yelled, while wiping sweat from his forehead. By then, the bus had disappeared around a corner. "Dutty teg-reg," he whispered, before redirecting his attention to the task at hand.

Maas Leety was dutifully working on his latest creation, a wicker chair that was almost half-way complete. I had spotted the skinny man hard at work at his craft by the side of the road in St Andrew.

"Good morning!" I had exclaimed.

"Who dat?" was the reply from the man, looking in the other direction.

I quickly summoned the man's attention to where I was standing, and introduced myself.

"Yuh haffi see wid mi, for mi trouble wid di eye dem," he said.

Visual impairment

Maas Leety was born with a visual impairment that sometimes affects his ability to see properly.

By the look of things though, this hasn't slowed him down one bit. The aging man's hands bobbed up and down with alarming dexterity.

"Yuh buying a set from me?" he asked, with a wry smile.

I told him I was more interested in finding out about what he does.

"Well, pull up a chair, man! Meck wi reason," he said.

Even as he worked and as vehicles whizzed by, Maas Leety started telling me how he got into the wicker business.

"I is really from Trelawny, yuh know. From di Brown's Town area. Well, when I was a lilly bwoy, a Spanish man did was visit di community and teach me and a man name June Bug how fi really do di wickering. Di edda people dem inna di community never too fancy it, so is me and June Bug alone. Anyway, after that, is just di wickering mi do. Nothing else," Maas Leety said, smiling.

I asked the man if his visual impairment made his job a lot more difficult.

"No man! Di wickering have fi do wid di hands dem. After mi nuh use mi eye dem fi weave! Tee, hee, hee!" the man chuckled.

A bit red in the face, I changed the subject by asking Maas Leety how sales have been going.

"Well mi been doing dis ting long time now. And, one ting mi learn is dat, just like inna life, yuh have up and yuh have down wid di wickering. Sometime, yuh nuh have hand fi sell, sometime everyting slow.

Like how di Chistmas coming now, tings will pick up back," he said.

A pair of chairs sells for around $16,000 and takes the man close to three days to complete.

"Mi woulda love fi sell dem cheaper still, but times ah get hard. Mi haffi travel go Portland go buy di wicker and it sell fi bout $12,000 fi a 100 pound," Mass Leety said, his eyes wide open.

"Yuh can imagine dat? Mi granny! Look wah mi live fi come see!" he exclaimed, still moving his hands, rapidly.

"Anyway, mi love di wickering too much fi stop now. All if it get too expensive and mi haffi gi dem weh free, mi might just do dat, cause I am di original wicker man and mi ah go do di wickering 'till mi dead!"

robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com.

The Roving with Lalah book is coming!

To find out more, and to pre-order a copy,visit www.ianrandlepublishers.com