By Tara Narayan

DON’T know about you but I love the coconut tree first, the peepal tree second and…the others, neem, Akash neem, all the fruit trees have such parental connotations if you know what I mean. Life without trees would be impossible to live. But the coconut tree deserves a column all for itself. I suddenly realized we have a World Coconut Day on September 2 and it has come and gone and what did we do to celebrate this most national of our trees! Very little.
I mean, did you even drink coconut water and eat the creamy white “malai” in it, taking home the harder kernel flesh to chop and mix into a salad of the day? Hey, some places celebrate World Coconut Tree with much fanfare, it has been celebrated every September 2 since 2009…come to think of it anew, how much the coconut tree or coconut trees have transformed human life.
Think of magical tree, the coconut tree, not for nothing it is the “kalpavriksha“ or wish fulfilling of India in religious mythology and there are so many ceremonies of auspicious beginnings which cannot do without a coconut tree settled on a copper pot lined with fresh green mango leaves…no puja is complete without featuring a coconut tree. My earliest memories of visiting a temple is to come with the priest giving me a few coconut kernel bits if nothing else (little yellow cardamom or elaichi banana, jaggery bits crushed with coriander seeds, roasted gram)…but coconut pieces is an enduring memory. Nowadays of course I don’t come across this practice in temples which I visit on special occasions.
But to stay with the coconut tree it is the one tree worth worshipping and appreciating and most of us do that already. In Hindu tradition the coconut tree is revered first, it is perceived as the life-giving tree and many are the folk and other stories coming to us from long, long tradition of putting a coconut tree to good use – starting from its original native homes in India, also South East Asia, from where reportedly coconut travelled around the world in sea and ocean waters…to Indonesia perhaps which is today the largest producer of coconuts, then Philippines, Sri Lanka, and India there’s Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karela, Goa, right up to Gujarat. Coconuts rule our coastal cuisines and I for one will never want to see a Goa landscape without coconut trees swaying in the breezes and wind, a real dancing concert!
WHEN did you last look at a coconut tree? I look at coconut trees day in and day out while riding up and down capital city Panaji and what a joy coconut trees are, what resilient trees. We must celebrate World Coconut Day much more …coconut trees and its fruit soft-hearted or hard-headed fruit a manner of speaking. The coconut is seen as a fruit. In the ancient Puranas the sub-continent evolved with the coconut trees being brought by the Nagalok, whoever they be…interestingly there is also a coconut religion founded in 1963 by the Vietnamese mystic and scholar – the coconut monk – Nguyen thanh Nim. His devotees address him as His Coconutship prophet or something like that, look it up if you wish.

So ingrained is the coconut tree and its gifts in the south Indian mind that I remember the US presidential candidate Kamala Harris in one of her talks remembering her mother Shyamala Gopalan (who migrated to USA, married a black Jamaica man and had two daughters with him, one of them Kamala) telling her sharply that she did not fall out of the coconut tree! Kamala Harris is making waves in the current presidential election campaigning going on…will she, will she not triumph over former president Donald Trump? I hope she does, she will be making history in the USA if she wins, USA’s first president would be a brown woman of mixed parentage.
But to return to the coconut tree it is much loved in Goan villages too for its leaves are used to weave lovely greet mats to cover roofs and dry condiments in the sun, the ribs of the leaves turn into brooms for sweeping, the dry leaves double as a torch in the evenings in the fields…then of course the fruit of the coconut. Tender coconut kernel, ambrosial water to quench thirst and an invalid’s best health drink full of mineral values, there is coconut milk “ross” to drown freshly made rice vermicelli in for an evening snack. Coconut milk just about goes in every fish curry and other curries including the Portuguese-styled caldin curry which I love the most.
Okay think freshly grated coconut “choon” laced in chopped and lightly cooked greens and veggies…the most popular red amaranth greens called “tamdi bhaji” comes as a fresh grated coconut laced vegetable dish…in Goa “fov” or parched red or white rice is soaked in coconut milk and sweetened a bit with palm jaggary, delicious. Festive sweet “patolyo”is redolent of coconut and turmeric leaf, giving connoisseurs of this steamed sweet a real high…both Hindu Goa makes it and so does Catholic Goa.
Oh, there is so much to the coconut tree and its many gifts to humankind, to civilization itself…think food, fuel, cosmetics, folk medicine and building material; craftwork, jewelry, eco-friendly all the way…serve in coconut shell bowls smoothened and polished and doubling as serving bowls. Have you ever be served coconut hearts in a Goan eatery, next time ask for it, only native Goans get it!
And finally, look at a coconut tree every day and drink coconut water and eat coconut kernel; adopt cold pressed coconut oil as your first oil in the kitchen, better than all other oils…folk who eat coconut actually enjoy a strong heart and that’s the latest research. Babies may drink coconut milk if breast milk is un available, and I’ve read stories about how doctors used sterile coconut water while performing surgery in less than perfect conditions in rural places! Coconuts offer vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin…several studies have proven it increases sperm count and motility. Sportsmen live on coconut water to hydrate themselves.
Indeed, eating raw coconut is good for health, it’s great for gut health. Read up all the reams and reams of literature which testifies to the goodness of the coconut and how it makes so much life possible on earth. If you didn’t look at a coconut tree on World Coconut Day on September 2, go look at it now! I once wrote a poem for the coconut tree and here it is…hope you enjoy reading it! It’s from my first collection of poetry titled “Single Woman” published by Rupa & Co oh so long ago in 1991, when I was much younger in mind and body, heart and soul.