Opinions may differ but for Sam Pati, 19, from Tiavi, there’s no better life than the life of a farmer.

Working hard every day at the family plantation to earn money, Sam says this is the true lifestyle of a Samoan.

“Life out here is simply the life of Samoa,” he told the Village Voice.

“There’s no point in mucking around and going out when there’s work to do; I would rather plant taro and bananas than waste my time on nonsense.

“My daily life is the usual for a young farmer, I plant crops, watch the cows and take care of the other animals that we have.”

Sam says that life is simple to the point where they don’t run into any problems at home.

“To be honest we don’t go through any hardships at all out here.

“We live far away from town so we don’t muck around. That’s when a family runs into problems, when people waste their time doing useless things.

“This is basically all we do out here. We work very hard in the plantation and we love it.”

According to Sam, this is the only life for him and he loves it.

“I love life out here; this is where the money is,” he said.

“I can work the land here in the villages and earn some money but if I go to town then I’ll run into problems like wasting money, I’ll go hungry and so on.

“So I don’t see the point in going to town and suffering when we can make a lot of money out here.”

And where does the money go? Not beer, not on useless junk, but straight to helping out the family.

Sam’s only message to the youth is to work hard and don’t waste time.

“My message to all the youth of Samoa is to work hard,” he said.

“If you are honest with your plantation then you will reap what you sow; you will make enough money for your family out here.

“A farmer’s life is the best life because you will be holding money from the beginning of the week until the end.

“The money I get goes straight into helping my parents out at home. We use it to buy the food and everything else that we need within the family.”