Green and Go

Have you ever seen a coconut tree full of holes from its bottom to upper trunk, but, still bearing a lot of fruits? It just shows it had gone through a lot of fights for its life and had fully recovered. I saw one by the tee mount of Par 3 Hole No. 5 of the Midlands Golf. I took a picture of it, but, unfortunately, I could not retrieve it. It must have been erased by accident.

The holes, actually, are indicative that the tree had been attacked by insects or had gone through a disease called Cadang cadang for almost all of its life. True to its reputation, it has withstood the disease so many times over. That’s why you can see those scars like a soldier bearing scars of wounds from a battle.

About eight (8) years ago, the coconut trees in the Calabarzon area were infested by cocolisap, an insect infestation that affects the coconut leaves, turning them into brown color. This really affected the trees’ food production and hence, its fruit bearing process. The infestation was then a puzzle to Agriculture authorities, even to some senators, on how to treat this disease. The coconut trees for afew years suffered until Typhoon Glenda with maximum winds of 220 kph hammered Southern Luzon. The coconut trees bore the brunt of the typhoon and weathered it. And only a few fell down, but, the most interesting thing that happened was all the cocolisap insects were blown away by the typhoon. After the typhoon, the trees recovered and are now bearing many fruits.

Indeed, there are many lessons to learn from the coconut trees. Not only is it a good tree to plant in typhoon prone areas, but, also, a good mirror for our lives. When life seems hopeless, just hang on until a great opportunity comes a long. However, the most common lesson from it: Use your coconut!