Coconuts

I suspect that most Westerners think coconuts grow wild, being self-seeded and needing no maintenance. This is quite wrong; some palms may grow wild, but the vast majority, even on the remotest and most idyllic beach, have been planted and are cared for by someone. Coconuts need a light soil that allows air to circulate around their roots, and moist winds to keep their fronds from drying out in the sun. Hence their presence on sandy beaches cooled by the sea wind; but inland they are planted among the village houses to provide shade, fresh nuts, decorative fronds, raw materials for making household implements and weaving containers of all sizes, juice from the flowers to be fermented and distilled into a potent liquor, and eventually fence-posts and fuel. In a landscape of wet rice fields, you may pick out the villages from afar as islands of shady coconut palm and bamboo.