Cuba
in Defense of Its National Tree
February 17, 2009,
3:20 pm
By Raul Estrada Zamora
estrada@enet.cu
Translation: Ernesto Gutierrez Pino
Cuba works
to sow this year over half million of royal palms in views to restore
almost three thousand demolished by the powerful hurricanes Gustav, Ike
and Paloma, besides enriching the forest patrimony of the country with
that special tree for all the Cubans.
If someone
asks any child of this Caribbean island what he knows about the royal
palm, he will say without hesitations: it is our National Tree. But for
me that I was also a boy - it is important to remember that the plant
means much more.
I opened
the eyes in a hut and that means that the walls and roof of my house
were made of royal palm leaves.
Chencha,
my mother, washed our scarce clothes in shallow pans, also made of royal
palm and Mongo, my father, from time to time brought honeycombs in
vessels of that type.
The royal
palm also produced seeds to feed the pigs. We also use the vessels made
of that tree to put the rice with black beans, lettuce salad, tomatooes,
and yucca.
My mother
used to make the cover of the delicious peanut cones with royal palm
while her children pulled her skirt, crying of impatience, for the
irritating smoke of the woody stove or due to the common habit of
sobbing to obtain something.
Although
my sisters can buy plastic brooms in any modern store at present, they
must remember they swept the floor and the surroundings of the house
with brooms made with the fibers of the clusters of the royal palms.
It is also
imposible to forget that due to the lack of toys and more instructive
hobbies, in many occasions my siblings and I went to slip down the
ravine on a leaf of a royal palm.
But the
royal palm is much more than those childhood memories, because that
slender queen of the Cuban countryside also offers us wood of excellent
quality for constructive, diverse ends, included the craft or artistic
carpentry.
Since
early times, the tender heart of the superior part of the royal palms,
known as palm heart, is eaten in soups and salads. It even mitigated the
hunger of those who fought for the independence of Cuba in the 19th
century.
The oil
extracted from the seeds has diverse uses, included the production of
medications, soaps, candles, cosmetics, chocolates, margarine or butter,
lubricant, and other products.
One of the
big advantages of the royal palm is that it blooms and fructifies the
whole year, and each plant can give in that period of time about 90
kilograms of seeds.
The royal
palm is a tree that provides abundant nectar to the bees. It offers
shade to the livestock and refuge to a diverse fauna. It protects the
soils and the hydrographic basins against the erosion. It contributes to
the ecological balance, while its leaves are used to attenuate the
direct solar radiations on the vegetables, the tobacco, and other
cultivations.
For those
explained reasons, I think that all the Cubans are happy to know that
the State is boosting a program to foment the royal palm, project to
which we should help with the sowing of seeds and postures, as well
preserving those there are in the country.
