The Endless Possibilities of the Banana Blossom
01.09.2024 Plant Profiling with Daniel Souza
This ode begins with a gift. Which I must say, to this day, I still don’t know if it was truly meant for me. But, as many things in my life, I took it with gratitude and a hint of cheek.
The gift was one admission to an eighteen plus music festival headlined by Disclosure. The only problem?
I was sixteen.
There had been many-a-teenage-nights spent under the haze of smoke machines and strobes, two stepping to the electronic sounds of disclosure and the enchanting vocoder voice of Aluna George. “Lately I’ve been thinking…” Ritalin is good fun, but that’s beside the point. Point and fact, this event was too good to miss, and I couldn’t let my age be the deciding factor.
To keep it short, I had to jump into this festival. The features of my almost pre-pubescent face would not pass for the features of a mature adult required to get into such an event, without of course, the necessity of a proof of identity.
One hop-skip and jump later, I found myself leaping directly into the morning meeting of the event organisers and within an instant, into the arms of a security guard. A tense grip ensued, and I had to admit defeat.
“You can let me go, I won’t run.”
And without a word, this kind man escorted me to a gate, opened it and said:
“Good luck.”
Call it fortune, bravery or naivety, years of similar behaviour have followed. Whether or not you deem my actions questionable, I urge you to acknowledge my flaws and understand that I always support artists directly. I purchase merchandise or vinyl to show my appreciation after the fact. And hey, who makes the rules anyway.
Fast forward twelve years.
I have recently said to a close friend that I can always tell the nature of the portal I am in by the frequency of the synchronicities occurring around me. Boy, have the portals been profound. It would be way too much to attempt to speak about all the synchronicities here and besides, this is an ode to the banana blossom.
*Que an attempt to enter a local venue and watch a highly anticipated live show. An open backdoor into a green room emerges *
“Shall we?”
A nod of agreeance and movement is initiated.
As we walk into the greenroom, the cat and I abruptly stumble upon the band who are head-lining. Whilst I humbly lead the way through the troop and toward the stage, the cat gently and gracefully acknowledges each member of the band. Another door opens, and we are sharing the stage with a good friend of mine, whom we shall call ‘Reginald Bonaparte’. Thankfully, Reginald and his band are taking an intermission with Reg mid-speech as we emerge onto stage right.
“Meow!” Reg chants.
Coolly we slip on and off the stage, unnoticed by all but the bassist whom we share a cheeky
“Oh, hey, hi, hello”.
Now on the dance floor, the cat escapes to the bathroom to pour some mezcal into a cup of ice for us to sip on. Directly infront of me I notice a man wearing a t-shirt. The shirt reads: “THE PORTAL OF POSSIBILITIES”. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a synchronicity. Of all his clothes, what are the chances of him choosing this shirt, and what is the probability of him standing in the exact location we also chose to stand?
Following the completion of Reginald’s performance, an interesting interaction with an Italian man seemingly under the influence of narcotics ensues.
“Fagioli” he insisted
“Fajuli” The cat and I repeated back, obviously mispronouncing.
“FAGIOLI!”
“Fagioli!” We mimicked, louder and with slight exasperation, finally getting the pronunciation correct.
Fagioli means beans in Italian, and I don’t really know why we were yelling about them, but suddenly I was touched on the shoulder and asked “How are you mate?”
I turn to acknowledge an older character, who, as it seemed–because of my features bestowed to me by my Latin heritage–was attempting to mock my presumed questionable English. Benefit of the doubt granted, I proceeded enthusiastically.
“Incredibly well actually!”
I deliver my response in a distinctly Australian accent, developed by the early formative years of my life spent in the south of Tasmania. Whilst responding, I catch a glimpse of another fella standing next to this man, whose energy is much lighter.
No longer paying any attention to the man who initiated conversation, but beginning to connect with a man who seemed open and willing to listen. I proceed to divulge the details of the experiences that led us to this moment.
“You know what, we’ve actually been caught red-handed by security at the front door with fake wristbands. We thought blue was a suitable choice, so we cut up the cover of the Power of Now and taped it to our wrists. That didn’t really work so we tried the back. We made it straight through the green room, down the stage and arrived here completely unnoticed.”
“Wow. You’ve paid your dues. You deserve to be here.”
“Haha and it’s actually not the first time I’ve done this. I’ve watched a reggae master perform here and walked in using a banana blossom disguised as a wristband.”
“No way. I cut down a bunch of bananas recently and happened to feed them to the children today. I can’t wait to tell the kids about the endless possibilities of the banana blossom.”
“Well isn’t that perfect…”
“Honestly, thanks for sharing. Stories are all we have”
Following a laugh and some more to exchange, I turn to the cat;
“I have a feeling this man is famous.”
“Exceptionally” the cat replies.
“What’s his name?”
“I can’t remember.”
And whilst the name came to us later that evening, it doesn’t matter. What matters is his kindness, his willingness to listen to a character ranting about strange stories and scientists, his shared enthusiasm for the naturally occurring phenomena of the earth, his joint passion for an excellent attitude and finally, what connected us: the endless possibilities of the banana blossom.
So, as your favourite surfer’s favourite surfer says “Stories are all we have.”
Enter the realm of the portal and keep sharing your stories, you’ll always find someone willing to listen.
Ode Number Three--The banana blossom
PLANT PROFILE
Musa species
Banana
Family: Musaceae
Width: Up to 5 m
Height: Up to 6 m
Trunk: Clumping Herbaceous growth habit
Characteristics
A gigantic herb that emerges from clumping rhizomes. A monocarpic structure that exists above-ground as a pseudo-stem. The above-ground pseudo-stem consists of a soft central core with tightly wrapped large elliptic leaf sheaths arranged in rosette form. Flowers emerge at the tip of the pseudo-stem in a pendulous large spike with numerous yellow flowers, covered by large purple bracts. Modern day edible bananas produce fruit through the process of parthenocarpy rather than pollination. The parthenocarpy process refers to the growth of fruit through the development of a fibrous tissue within the ovary of the banana flower.
Habitat
Humid tropical to subtropical regions across the planet.
Horticultural Importance
A multitude of desirable characteristics spanning from permaculture uses to cooking. The large thick pseudo-stems are highly nutritious and can be used to create composting circles and false edging. The blossom, leaves and fruit are edible. Bananas follow rice, wheat and maize in terms of their importance as a food crop.
Based on archaeological and genetic analysis, hybridization of the banana species can help prove patterns of human movement from modern day New Guinea to West Africa during the Holocene period. The existence of the modern day bananas that we know and love, points to human migration–and interactions such as trading–as the core drivers of hybridization.
For those curious and wanting to gain an in-depth understanding on the development of the Musa species, see the journal article linked beneath by Perrier et al., (2011) And thank you Dyl Goody for the heads up on bananas and the link between their existence and our movement through history.
Musa species
Banana
Family: Musaceae
Width: Up to 5 m
Height: Up to 6 m
Trunk: Clumping Herbaceous growth habit
Characteristics
A gigantic herb that emerges from clumping rhizomes. A monocarpic structure that exists above-ground as a pseudo-stem. The above-ground pseudo-stem consists of a soft central core with tightly wrapped large elliptic leaf sheaths arranged in rosette form. Flowers emerge at the tip of the pseudo-stem in a pendulous large spike with numerous yellow flowers, covered by large purple bracts. Modern day edible bananas produce fruit through the process of parthenocarpy rather than pollination. The parthenocarpy process refers to the growth of fruit through the development of a fibrous tissue within the ovary of the banana flower.
Habitat
Humid tropical to subtropical regions across the planet.
Horticultural Importance
A multitude of desirable characteristics spanning from permaculture uses to cooking. The large thick pseudo-stems are highly nutritious and can be used to create composting circles and false edging. The blossom, leaves and fruit are edible. Bananas follow rice, wheat and maize in terms of their importance as a food crop.
Based on archaeological and genetic analysis, hybridization of the banana species can help prove patterns of human movement from modern day New Guinea to West Africa during the Holocene period. The existence of the modern day bananas that we know and love, points to human migration–and interactions such as trading–as the core drivers of hybridization.
For those curious and wanting to gain an in-depth understanding on the development of the Musa species, see the journal article linked beneath by Perrier et al., (2011) And thank you Dyl Goody for the heads up on bananas and the link between their existence and our movement through history.
Reference:
Perrier, X. et al. (2011) Multidisciplinary perspectives on banana (musa spp.) domestication, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136277/