(1010) Windfall of Coconuts

As I was sitting in my backyard yesterday, three contract sanitation workers came to cut the grass and clear the big drain. One of them wielded a lightweight cutter, the other cleared the drain behind the first, and the third one chopped the brambles ahead of his colleagues.

On their way back, the one with the cutter asked if the coconut trees behind my property were mine. “No,” I said as I pointed to the big house three hundred feet across the hill. He smiled and told his colleagues something before he climbed up the shorter tree. He was graceful. There was a certain cadence in the way he swung himself up the narrow trunk progressively using both arms and legs.

Once he reached the cluster of brown coconuts, he twisted and sent about ten, one after another, down into the waiting hands below. Looking at them, they were definitely used to handling coconuts. The climber hugged three to his chest. The drain-clearer held two, one in each hand. The bush-clearer managed to take one while his other hand held the machete.

An hour later, an old man walked past. He saw the coconuts on the wayside and picked up two to take home. I wonder if they are going to use the white flesh to make dessert or squeeze the milk out to cook curry?