Kapok and Kekabu

I first noticed the plants when I went for a walk after work during a final week of fasting month.

There were a few different wild plants grew side by side with it, but it eventually took over and the rest of other plants wilted away.

They grew on the side of M Street Bath House at the end of Carson Beach bore the green fruits with tiny thorn s. Most of the leaves were long gone.

I carefully ran my index finger over one of the pods. The tiny, short thorns were sharp, but I was careful not to let the thorns pricked into my skin. Like all the animals and plants that have their own devices to protect their existence, the tiny Sharp thorns and very, very short hairs between the thorns must be the protector, the shield.

Each pod had a similar size, between 4 to 5 inches in length and about 5 inches diameter.

Last Tuesday, after my weekly acupuncture session at noon, I didn't return to my office. I took the bus from Copley and went home. I used the hours that accumulated  from the past weeks.

It was 2:50 pm when I got home. It was a lovely afternoon. The kind of day you wanted to be outside, doing something or nothing. But you wanted to be outside.

I changed into a running short, short sleeves t-shirt, off I went out running on the beach.

When I reached at the end of the beach, an amazing and wondrous sight awaited me. I didn't have a camera in my hand. What did I do? I turned around and ran back to my apartment. It took me eight minutes to reach the front door of the building.

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The green thorny pods had matured and the skin turned to brown. The  dried skin cracked opened to expose a fluffy white floss. A tiny brown seed attached to the end of the floss.

The white floss reminded me of kekabu  from kekabu trees (kapok , ceiba petendra) grew tall with green to grayish barks. They looked proud and magnificent  on the right corner of my grandmother's front yard.

The floss from this plant wasn't as fluffy as kekabu and its texture

 was nothing like kekabu, but it was close to enough to bring back the memories.

Kapok tree was original from South American and it was a sacred tree to Mayan people. The soul of dead ascended to heaven through the branch. And kapok tree is Guatemala's national tree.

 

When I was thinking about writing this entry, I remembered the year we lived at grandmother's house when the kapok pods were ready to be harvested.

The green pods turned to brown and trees shed all the leaves. It was a beautiful sight. All the brown pods on the branches hanging up on the trees and there was no single leaf in sight. Some of the pods cracked open and fluffy white floss kapok popped out. It was a beautiful sight.

It was the beginning of 1964, and my mother threw out all the old pillows from all the bedrooms of my grandmother's house. All of us had new freshly made pillow with fresh harvested kekabu. And on top of that my grandmother had a cupboard-full of extra pillows.

Comments

[anasalwa]

Jo,
I think it would, but we need a lot of pods :)).

Thank you Dale and Percicilan.

Deborah,

aaahhhh yesss...those tasty food. And I need to work on my cholestrol. Good luck to both of us .

[Deborah]

Lovely photos and story. I read all the way down to the feasts you've had recently. I feel fatter just looking at them...and my cholesterol was high too...

[Percicilan]

Beautiful pics !

[dale]

wow!

[jo]

I bet milk pods would make a lovely pillow.
Such a nice memory.