The Tree of Life

Coconut trees are of vital importance to island life. There are literally thousands of different uses of the tree. It represents strength, life and endurance. Growing on all islands in sand or soil coconut trees endure all kinds of weather surviving hurricanes, typhoons and droughts. A coconut tree and its fruit are used at every stage of growth. Coconut to islanders is a symbol of life, sustenance, and endurance. There are basically three kinds of edible coconut trees growing in Yap. Most common are the green -"Yaraa" - and a red-orange -"Rowrow". The yellow-orange -"Magchol" - coconut is less common. All types are considered important in local island medicine as well as food. In addition to edible coconuts, nipa palm coconut are grow in plantation fashion. Nipa has fronds somewhat resistant to fire and are made into the thatch roofing for local buildings. Nipa palm thatching lasts for a long period of time.

Fronds from all coconut are used for shelter, clothing, decoration, baskets, and many things beyond imagination. Canoes are moved from canoe houses to the ocean on a slip made from coconut fronds utilizing the heavy large spine to slide the canoe from land to water without having to carry it. Shade cover is created using the fronds over a frame. Coconut fronds are used to cover the ground over the sand for seating under the cover. Spines from leaves are removed, bundled and tied with coconut rope to make local brooms, fly swatters, or used to harvest sap by rolling in the wounded bark of the of the breadfruit tree to be used as glue or cover paint on canoes or a single spine is used as a handle for a pinwheel and other woven toys. Fronds are also woven to use as disposable food plates, baskets to carry the harvest of garden produce, to carry rocks and coral for building or repair of platforms, stone paths or rock walls or as trash containers. Woven coconut baskets are biodegradable so are used as mulch when old or torn.

Each stage the fruit of a coconut goes through is useful as well. When a tree blooms, selected blossoms are cut off, the stem bent down and secured with coconut rope forcing the wounded stem to drip into a coconut shell cup. The man who owns that tree harvests the sweet sap, called "Achief" in Yapese, which fills the cup three times a day. If the blossomy stem heals over and does not drip any more a sharp knife is used to reopen the stem. Achief is the local sweetener used to make a syrup, candy, mixed with water to make a sweet drink or cooked with taro or sweet potatoes. Men save some of the harvest in special coconut cups which are not washed maintaining bacteria that within hours turns achief into an alcoholic drink called "Tuba". Often, evenings are spent at the men's house partaking of tuba, telling legends, fishing and sailing adventures to wide-eyed young men of the village.

Young boys climb coconut trees with machetes to cut young coconuts. Once on the ground, machetes are used to cut away husk accessing the water inside the coconut. It is a refreshing island drink called "Ochub". The coconut cut in half allows the the soft sweet jelly meat to be eaten with a spoon fashioned from the husk - a real island treat called "Manaw". As a coconut ages, water inside becomes sweeter, meat firmer, husk gets harder, more fibrous and turns light brown. Mature coconut - "Marew" - is eaten with fish and taro, grated with stylized graters of the Pacific islands to be made into cream or milk. Grated coconut is mixed with water, kneaded to extract the cream or milk and squeezed by hand or through a cloth to strain off course meat residue. Coconut milk is used in cooking fish, chicken, pork, beef and shell fish seasoned boiled or baked. Special deserts are made from the sweet creamy milk.

Grated coconut is rendered for oil by adding water and boiling until water disappears and coconut oil remains.
Coconut oil is mixed with turmeric and other island plants or extracts for medicinal purposes. Dried copra is shipped to manufacturers of oil and soap products. Harvesting copra begins as mature brown coconuts gathered from the bush and hauled to a drying site. The drying site consists of a building away from homes to isolate smoke. This two story building has a tin walled room on the ground level and above it a room with a grate floor and with an open porch in front. The roof is made of thatched nipa palm over the grate and has a roof cap elevated ten to twelve inches above the roof which is made wider to overlap the roof providing an air draw to pull heat through the grate from the smudge fire in the copra husks. A lean-too porch on the second level in front of the grated room is also covered with a thatched roof. The coconuts are husked at ground level and husks thrown into fire beneath the grate. Coconut taken up to the open porch area are broken in half allowing water from the coconut to drain through the bamboo floor of the porch to the open area underneath. Halves are thrown onto the grate over the fire to dry. The drying period is about seven days with fires tended for safety and to keep them burning. Once dry, copra is extracted from the shell by tapping on a flat rock then bagged for transportation . This time consuming harvest of copra currently sells at 13 cents a pound.

Mature coconut as it begins to sprout develops a white mass inside often called an apple which can be eaten and is a favorite to all. Old coconuts are fed to pigs. Coconut husks are stored in eves of or under the house to keep it dry, later to be used in a local kitchen for a cooking fire or taken on canoe voyages, cooking fish right on the burning husk set into bed of rocks and sand in the bottom of the canoe. Foods cooked over a coconut husk fire has an surprisingly present flavor.

Before matches... The soft pulpy fiber of a coconut husk was used as tender to start a fire. A fire is started by the experienced in just minutes using a soft wood such as hibiscus and creating friction with a hard wood stick. The fiber is placed near the friction point and is ignited by the frictions heat.

Coconut husks are put in water for a period of up to three months to dissolve the pulp away from the fibers. Taken from the water and dried the fibers are pulled from the husk and bundled to be used in many ways. Men of the island roll fibers into coconut rope using the pressure of the heel of the hand against their thigh to twist the fibers into strands of rope. Handles of shell money are made by wrapping coconut rope around bundles of fiber. "Reng", another form of Yapese money - Turmeric processed into a powdery ball, is wrapped in coconut fiber. Spears, daggers and other weapons are decorated with coconut fiber.Long braided ropes of coconut fiber are used on men's houses.

Coconut husk is shaped and cut into thin strips and used as a gasket in joints between wood pieces of a canoe as it is glued with breadfruit sap and tied together with coconut rope.

Coconut husks are also used to mulch and help hold moisture around plants and small trees.
When betelnut is scarce, husks of special sweet coconuts are cut and chewed with the pepper leaf and lime.
Coconut shell is used for lime containers, food containers, water containers, bowls, cups and also fashioned into ladles, strainers, spoons and a large assortment of jewelry such a bracelets, or fashioned into earrings, necklaces and beads in belts.

The shell can also be shaped and sharpened to use as a taro peeler or breadfruit scraper. Burned and soot mixed with juice extracted from a young coconut husk to made a dark black dye. Coconut wood is used for spears, utility tools, stools, posts in local buildings, garden boundaries, and decayed in gardens as mulch. The tree root has several uses as well.

The fiber around the base of a frond when it is attached to the tree appears as if it has been woven. This fiber is used on the handles of daggers, spears and shell money. Reng or turmeric wrapped in the fiber is soaked in coconut oil and dabbed on the skin. Also the fuzzy brown fiber on the young coconut fronds is scraped into a container to be used to stop bleeding.

New soft yellow frond shoots at the top of the tree, are gathered to use as decorations for dancers to wear around their neck, on their arms and legs, or as an over lay dancing skirt. The young fronds are used to weave into headdresses with flowers and gift or display baskets for food. At ceremonies walkways and arches are lined with the soft yellow fronds highlighted with bright red hibiscus flowers.

Fronds are woven into baby baskets. Baby are carried in these baskets until they are about two years old. A husk of a betel nut frond is separated and the soft inside of the frond is used to line a baby basket. The inside of the frond is soft and almost vinyl like surface which sheds water and is able to be kept clean, especially when held at an angle to drain when necessary. Babies are carried in the baskets to protect them from body heat of their carrier and covered with a towel or blanket for shade from the sun. At home the baby in the basket is hung by a rope on a beam inside the house or in a nearby tree to catch a breeze making sleep cool and comfortable as a stick wedged between the sides holds the basket open.

I could go on but if you have read this far then its best to just let you imagination go from here.