Francisco B. Icasiano

Ningas Cogon

Most of Icasiano’s essays were published in periodicals under the pen name of “Mang Kiko”. He wrote on various subjects, often in a light vein

although there were always deeper implications in his work. The essay, which follows, deals with a common Filipino Characteristic.

- Is a reed-like plant of the grass family which usually grows near river beds and in wide uncultivated lands.

Cogon

This quality of the reed-like plant has given the Tagalog an idiom ningas-kugon, “burns like the cogon”. It burns fast and dies fast.