Monday’s murder of our Observer West columnist, Mr Buckston Harrison, and the subsequent vows of his survivors to pick up where he left off evoke some poignant issues to do with the importance of legacies, documentation and succession planning.

We say this, not because we feel that Mr Harrison’s untimely passing is deserving of more or less condemnation than any of the many others that have saddened this society over the years.

We say it because we happen to be in a position to know that prior to his engagement as a columnist with our sister title, the Observer West, much of his work in the herbal industry was confined to the oral tradition as opposed to forensic documentation.

Even then, the space afforded by the column was never adequate to capture more than the barest essence of the significance of his work.

Nevertheless, we got an overwhelming response to Buckston and Huber’s Alternative, a column which was able to translate from the oral tradition some of the information that Mr Harrison had acquired over some 25 years of study and practical experience, as well as the efforts of Mr Thomas Huber, a Swiss national who has dedicated his life to creating what he has dubbed Jamaica’s next generation of exotic fruit trees.

Week after week for the past three years, hundreds of our local and international readers would contact us by telephone and e-mail requesting closer contact with Mr Harrison, in particular.

His work, which was able to attract sponsorship in the form of grants from Canada, was, without a doubt, controversial, as there were those who swore by the efficacy of his remedies as well as those who sought to dismiss him.

However, without taking sides, we are prepared to believe that in addition to the personal loss which his death has occasioned the many who knew him, society stands to lose an important part of its cultural history, but for the documentation of his work. Indeed, months before his untimely demise he often spoke of plans to write a book.

For it is no secret that folk medicine, despite its rich tradition, tends to attract a certain amount of scepticism from those who would seek to dismiss its efficacy for classist reasons.

The traditional bush doctor who never went to medical school has yet to be afforded a place beside his lettered counterpart.

But we learned from Mr Harrison and the clients — many of whom used to sneak over to his business in Sheffield, Westmoreland for advice — that things are and have been changing for quite some time now.

A familiar theme in the communications that used to come to us was that having failed to get relief from the synthetic remedies prescribed by their family doctors, these individuals were ready to try a natural cure.

Oftentimes they would write back with grateful testimonies regarding the efficacy of his recommendations.

Mind over matter?

Maybe.

However, students of literature will be able to appreciate that many of the great works which are now considered classics were never accepted in their day.

In some instances, centuries passed before the true significance of their work was realised and brought forward.

It may be that the work of Messers Harrison and Huber is ahead of its time.

All the more reason to document it.