COCONUT

Looking up the tall coconut trees bordering the now-overgrown-with-secondary-forest plots of land that mother has divided between the nine of us, I wonder whether I can still climb up one.

The young coconuts are all very inviting, more so in the hot and dry weather we were experiencing now.

The just-right young jelly-like coconut flesh also will for sure sooth my dry throat.

There are up there, ready for the picking, but who can I ask to get me one or two?

Nieces? Ah they are still too young and soft to climb up the almost-six-metre tree. The trees lacking those grooves for us to step on do not help much for novice climbers.

Hoping for the coconut-plucking short-tailed macaques? I have not seen any in the vicinity for a long time now.

What else can I do to get at the succulent flesh and the thirst-quenching coconut water?

May be I will just use a long wooden pole to bring down the coconuts. Well it is worth a try.

Using all the strength and skills in me, I manage to bring down two. The soft weeds break their fall and prevent them from breaking on me.

The coconut water, argh was heaven on Earth. The flesh afterwards was even better.

Oh coconut water and flesh. that is why a coconut water is called a life giver. All its parts can be useful in some way to mankind.