For 25 years, Nuteh Sulong, 63, has been making brooms out of oil palm leaf spines for a living. Nuteh, affectionately known as Cik Siah, heads to the oil palm plantation near her house in Serendah, Hulu Selangor, as early as 8am to search for leaves.
At the plantation, she will remove the oil palm leaves from the fronds and then wash and trim them to retrieve the spines.
The palm leaf spines are cleaned and tied together in bundles to form a broom.
Cik Siah's customers come from all over the country, as there is much demand for oil palm leaf spine brooms, as a well-made one can last up to two or three years. Cik Siah says brooms made from the leaf spine of the oil palm are more durable than those using coconut palm.
Cik Siah uses spines from only freshly cut fronds. She takes less than two hours to collect two bundles of spines from 200 to 300 oil palm leaves. She sells each broom for RM4.