Bananas

This morning I was having my breakfast and chatting about the state of the Middle East with my daughter, as I talked I realised that the whole state of affairs is absolutely bananas. With this in mind I thought I would share a poem I wrote a few weeks ago which is about that fruit.

Bananas

Mile on mile of broad leaved plants
adorned with plastic bags,
grown by corporations
and cut by men in rags.

The fruit is called “banana”
and each one looks the same
they cut them when un-ripened
which is a crying shame.

They’re shipped worldwide in coolers
And stacked in airtight stores
They’re ripened using ethylene
which also kills off spores.

The inner flesh of creamy white
is in yellow skin encased.
It’s firm, but slightly mushy
with a most distinctive taste.

Commercial bananas are engineered
biologically they’re the same
designed to have a shelf life
but the taste is rather lame.

The crop’s parthenocarpic*,
As such it can’t evolve
A pathogen could wipe it out
A problem hard to solve

But bananas grown in the wild
Are a very different thing
they’re constantly evolving
and variety’s built in.

There are little ones and big ones,
many coloured; not just yellow
Cooking ones called Plantains
and sweet ones; oh so mellow.

The banana is a staple food
For many populations
And served up cooked or eaten raw
It’s a mighty fine creation.

John Carré Buchanan
16 July 2011

* In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy (virgin fruit) is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules. The fruit is therefore seedless. If it affects every flower, then the plant can no longer sexually reproduce but might be able to propagate by vegetative means.