Beachcomber Magazine 05

The Coconut, FALSELY SUBMISSIVE NOIX DE COCO, FAUSSEMENT SOUMISE The coconut is a song of the islands, a sensual symbol, a link between all the tropics. This remarkable ‘seed’ (the heaviest) has a lenient nature, adapting to everything, laying low, and calming spices and temperaments. À elle seule, c’est un hymne des îles, un symbole sensuel, un trait d’union entre tous les tropiques. Cette « graine » remarquable (la plus lourde) a une nature clémente, s’accommodant de tout, faisant le dos rond, apaisant les épices et les tempéraments. BY FRANÇOIS SIMON PHOTOGRAPHS MATHILDE DE L’ÉCOTAIS MYTHS AND REALITIES 15 th century botanists rubbed their chins thoughtfully on seeing these lovely callipygian shapes abandoned on the beach. Their theory at the time was that they came from a tree hidden in the ocean depths, and came up to the shore to die. They were thought to come from Malaysia and the Indies. Not a bit of it. The rulers of the Maldives (of the coast of southern Indian) however managed tomake a fortune in Indonesia, Japan and China, where coconuts were bought (at great expense) as medicinal plants. In fact these cheerful palm trees probably came from the Seychelles (more precisely from Praslin and Curieuse), although no one would object to them springing from an earthly paradise, a leafy, palm- strewn Eden where coconuts could quite easily have come between Adam and Eve. Which all goes to say that the coconut has a CV as long as your arm. AN EASY-GOING NATURE And yet it claims no nobility, and no prerogatives. The coconut has an easy-going nature, a cheerful effusiveness. Just look at the jobs it takes on: from brushes, brooms, mats and rugs (its fibre does not rot) down to the most elegant of cocktails. And when it’s perched on high, sometimes 25 metres above ground, it has plenty of time to observe the Earth beneath. It can make coconut water or milk (the kernel is pressed and grated) and is considered the largest seed on earth (weighing up to 20 kilos). The coconut reproduces abundantly in Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines. Andof course inMauritius. Here, it is part of the decor, a pearl of the palm trees, which later descends to jazz up the local recipes. It has plenty of time. A palm tree is at its peak after fifteen years, and starts to lose its energy at around fifty. Which means that the coconut has time to watch and wait. It has something of a placid dimension. Nothing bothers it, and yet heaven knows, it gets served up in all kinds of ways. Themild-mannered coconut is added to vegetable curry, marina- ted fish, not to mention lamb and chicken dishes, and cooked cereals. It’s welcome everywhere, probably because it is so discreet. It leaves its more flamboyant neighbours in peace to look out for their own interests. The coconut is a bit like a moderator, calming any unruly spices, and keeping overly strong flavours firmly in check. DIVINELY COCONUT This tropical, slow-paced fruit is a sociable harbinger of peace. But don’t think of it for one moment as smug, or the village idiot. No, it has its distant pride, its natural good humour, and its own philosophy of life. The coconut also has a hidden, very spiritual existence, as it is part of the Hindu rituals (they say that if you break one you break your ego). Many virtues are attributed to it, and indeed, it is no miser. It reincarnates in many forms: powdered, flaked, milk, cream, oil and water. It gives way to others, the better to contem- plate its effects. You think it’s up there daydreaming, but in fact its copra is on your skin blended in a soothing monoi oil. The coconut always has the last word. We believed it on the moon, yet here it is appearing in desserts and in cocktails. Such is the fate of invisibles. They’re omnipresent. 