Thoughts of a minibus traveller

  200 dollar passion fruit  "Why de hell dem aint want buy it if dem asking de price" the market vendor shouted to her neighbour after I asked the price of the passion fruit and she shouted 5 for $1000.. "Write up de price and put pun de basket so nobody aint got fuh ask" the neighbour suggested. Passion fruit more expensive than the imported apples in the 55 year old oil Republic. Nuff oil flowing and being found but only two vendors have the bags of the crushed brownish firmish fruit which I used to eat every day as part of the wellness regime until they were no longer available. I remember a school friend with her land proposal to plant passion fruit on the highway at a time when people were now planting and how she explained you just leave them and they bear , and another friend who had glut and was sharing from her yard, and one time I cooked the leaves as bhajee. Her vine withered up at some point as the seasons changed and like so many other things where pric...

    Suckers are always there with broad leaves which turn gold then brown. One day wind blows and the large leaves move and there is a large purple bud full with the promise of bananas. And so watching over the next days as the bud moves down, shedding purple skin which turn red then brown. Becoming more visible as the leaves now hide the emerging bunch.  Wondering about the variety as the yard has only had 'apple' but these look different.  And not wanting to look too much or too close to stop bad eye? Revealing the rows of delicate white trumpets which hang like bells with yellow tips.  Humming bird hovers over the yellow tips, and then some bees. Banana already starting to feed. When does the banana begin? There is a magic as these white bells , instead of falling, curl upwards in a kind of yogic way  and hard skin is formed to protect solid white flesh as the yellow tips turn brown.  Farmers say when the bud has finished about 12 inches from the la...