DALILA MOHD YAMIN TESL A

Sad. Gloomy. Sorrowful. Three words that describe my feelings when I saw the
photo of a coconut tree at the beach. The coconut tree reminds me of someone that I
dear the most in the world; My grandmother. She was such a warm and lovely
woman. She was quite strict but deep inside I knew she meant well.
It was during my childhood. The coconut tree was something that I enjoyed
playing with during my childhood. My grandma’s house wasn’t near the beach but still
my family had planted quite lots of coconut trees around our house. Why? It’s
because the coconut has got to be the most versatile fruit used. It is grown on the
Palm Tree, every part of the coconut and the tree has virtually got a use and has
been used by different countries in different ways.I once heard in a book that it is
known as “The Tree of Life” in The Philippines and “The tree of a 1,000 uses” in the
Malaya language, coconuts have a history of important uses worldwide. It is grown in
over 80 countries worldwide, the coconut palm excels in the tropics, notably The
Philippines and Indonesia closely followed by India and Brazil which combined,
account for approximately 80% of the world’s coconut production.

We used to do a lot of things together using the coconut tree. Since I was the
youngest child in my family (now, I have two little brothers) and my parents had to go
to work in the morning, my grandma took care of me since my parents could not
afford to pay a caretaker. My grandma loved to make her own things. She was
satisfied with using what she made. She didn’t want to use the broom that can be
bought in supermarket. Instead she would ask me to go with her to trim the leaflets
from the fronds. Of course my job was only to collect those leaflets. She would never
ask me to use a machete like her because she did not want me to hurt myself. Next
she would take a leaflet and insert the knife between the mid-rib and the greens.
After that, she would shear with the knife along the mid-rib to separate the greens.
The remaining greens can be pulled down with hands. There may be a thin layer of
greens attached to the mid-rib. Using the knife, she would remove these strands also
from the sticks. Lastly, I gathered all sticks together and level the bottom of the
broom against a hard surface. I held them together while she tied the broom with a
piece of coir rope and trim extra rope. It was a nice experience and I was reminisced
about the memory.
But now that she is gone, the memory becomes sorrowful and I didn’t like
looking at the coconut tree. It is hurtful to realize that she is no longer with me.