A Word On Coconuts

 

When the pile gets big enough, it goes on the roof. 

Coconuts.

They are everywhere- lining the streets, in rows in the fields, even growing through buildings. From my apartment I can hear the occasional cartoon bonk of one hitting the street from twenty feet above. It's cute at first, but everything comes down. There are crews who maintain and harvest the street trees. They send a skilled climber up the tree, sometimes with a piece of cloth between his feet if he's new. He will use his machete to fell the fruit and dead or dying leaves. His partner will do his best from the ground to keep the population safe from shrapnel falling from above. When these coconuts land, it's either over a house, garden, car, or street. And when they bounce they are like a punted football- violent and random. Because of this and because a single man on the street will be ignored sometimes people or scooters are still hit. I've seen an officer file a coconut-related complaint. Later, a truck may come by for some of the husks. I have a set of pictures at the studio of such a vehicle. In between these visits fruit and leaves still fall. I sometimes hear a violent scraping/rumbling followed by a loud tha-whack! Down on the path most followed lie a ten foot section of solid coco-wood and even the leaflets are hard and dangerous. This week a lady was grazed by one that fell from our home's tree. Yikes! 

Now I always heed the advice of the PBS Star Hustler, Jack Horkheimer: 'And remember to keep looking up!' Some short time after a fall I will hear what sounds like water sprayed on aluminum siding in an echo chamber, that is to say the sound of one of these limbs drug off scraping down the road to be parted out like a Camaro. Everything gets used here, and in a country that doesn't have a Thriftway to get kindling at 3am everything freshly fallen is up for grabs. Our neighbors across the street have stacked this pile pictured for only a short while, they have however filled a whole rafter section designed for this purpose that wraps around the top of their house. Even our own landlady salvages and has deftly taken to a pile of coconuts with a machete. After having seen that I step warily out into the street, and pay my rent on time.

aeryk