The coconut was impressed upon us in school as a very useful plant. You can use the trunk to build steps that leads up your house, the leaves could be weaved together to make roofs. The stems of the leaves to be collected and bunched together to make brooms. The many parts of the fruit served many functions: the fibrous husks burns well and good for firewood, they make excellent support for planting orchids too, the hard nut also burns well, can be used as a cup or a bowl, or even as a piggy bank. The water inside is delicious and good for cooling down fever, the meat can be eaten raw and when shredded and strained, produces excellent “santan” which is an important ingredient for beef or chicken curry stew.

The coconut is multifunctional and adapted well to its environment. People here are like coconuts, we are very hardy, adaptable, speak many languages and able to creatively perform a variety tasks. As the once important coconut is being displaced by development, so is our spirit substituted by so-called progress.