Bananas

Hundreds of bananas in a bunch. 

I am seriously tired tonight but I’ve had this post floating around in my head for a bit so I’ll take a minute to hammer it out. Here at the place I’m currently living there are tons of banana trees. Several are in the process of producing fruit (they don’t have one set season like other fruit trees. When the tree is mature enough it produces so a good size stand of trees can fruit continually if well maintained). I couldn’t help but notice one afternoon while hanging out in the mildly cooler area under the trees that bananas don’t mess around when they are producing. I counted far more than 100 in the bunch. As it seems to be happening more and more I couldn’t help but think about the spiritual application. “I want to produce fruit like a banana tree” was my thought.

Tree needing to be propped up because the of weight of bananas.

I had intentions of blogging about banana trees (they are cool because they aren’t at all like Michigan fruit trees) with a few pictures but hadn’t gotten around to taking the pictures. Went outside yesterday with the camera only to discover the tree is destroyed! The weight of the ripening fruit has pulled the whole tree over. I found the gardener and he didn’t seem nearly as upset as I was. Together we propped the tree back up a bit (and man is it HEAVY!! Next time he gets to lift while I shove the sticks under to prop it up!) Anyway, I was reassured that the fruit is very nearly ready and the tree will last until he can cut the bunch off. But then what? I asked. He’ll just finish cutting the tree down. Come to find out banana trees pour so much energy into the fruit that they are wrecked in the process. Tonight as I write, I’m sure that again there is a spiritual application there but I'm not sure I'm up for making it....

Different tree with bananas at a younger stage. You can still see the big purple flower at the bottom.