Good hand

To take care of the plants, my grandmother removes dry leaves and branches, stirs the earth, rotates irrigation bottles and eliminates pests such as “garden fleas” which appear on plants like the Retama. These activities seem simple, but require more than manual skills: "Not everyone can take care of plants; in order to do so, you have to have a ‘good hand.’"

The expression "bad hand" or "good hand" is frequently used in the Ecuadorian highlands. People say that a person has a “good hand” when the plants that it sows or cares for grow healthy. It has a "bad hand" when they wither after being touched or they don’t germinate; this depends on the balance of energy and the overall state of health.