the gentle-hearted loquat

Yesterday I received a rare and precious visit from a friend who is originally from Hokkaido but now lives in distant Yokohama. Among the many gifts she brought me from Yokohama was a pack of loquats (biwa), that small, oval, downy-skinned fruit with huge seeds and a very mild flavor with subtle hints of apricots or peaches. My friend made me solemnly promise not to eat the loquats until I had painted them. So I had to wait till today, but I've done my duty, and the loquats are no more.

The Japanese writing is the first line of a children's song titled "Biwa."  Biwa are a gentle-hearted fruit/ that's why they hug one another in clusters as they ripen/ in the shade of rainbow-tinted leaves that are like donkey's ears.