Maui Stories

A Real Life Dr. Seuss Tree

The coconut palm is a real life Dr. Seuss tree and a symbol of the tropics the world over. The trunk twists and turns skyward at crazy angles, the more extreme of which makes me wonder how the tree manages to stay rooted in the ground. A coconut palm would make that world famous leaner from Pisa green with envy. Their rough-hewn trunks are covered with concentric rings that end just below where the fronds begin. And the fronds, they are the real show. When the trade winds are blowing, which is pretty much all of the time here on Maui, palm fronds move about in a shimmering, shape-shifting dance. When the trades are gentle the frond dance is slow and slinky. As the breeze kicks up in the afternoon,  the dance becomes a hula, then a waltz, then a tango and so on… Each palm frond is covered with hundreds of perfectly pointed leaves, the mesmerizing shimmer of the leaves is accompanied by a wooshing rustle, a collective whisper that if I listen closely enough and am in just the right frame of mind, I can almost hear the secrets of this magical place being revealed to me. The shadows of the trunks are Ichabod-skinny; long, lazy shafts of pure black that stretch across the lanai, the fronds cast dark, dappled pools that are chased by shade seekers as the tropical sun moves towards the horizon.

The real purpose of the coconut palm is to produce flowers which become fruit, in this case one of the signature delicacies of the tropics: the exalted coconut. The green-husked nuts come in many sizes, some can be larger than a rugby ball. When I first started coming to Hawaii I learned that not all coconuts are created equal. There are “drinkers” and there are “eaters” and a continuum in between. Shaking a coconut will tell you how much liquid is inside. The drinkers have more water and less meat, the eaters visa-versa. In the wild coconut palms go through their natural cycle of flowing and fruit bearing. But alas, here at our beachside condo, that process is aborted before it barely gets started. Acrobatic arborists shimmy up the trunks of these trees and cut off any flowers or tiny nuts that have managed to form. Mature coconuts falling on the heads of unsuspecting tourists is bad for business.

So…I reflect on the unique beauty of the coconut palm as their fronds dance in the peaceful trade winds. It’s just another day here on Maui.

A Dream In Blue

Fish glide past me like multi-colored birds in a tropical dream. It’s a languid lullaby, a real-time, slow motion dance below the surface out here at Molokini, an ancient, sunken volcanic crater off of Keawakapu Beach on the south shore of Maui. With my snorkel gear on I’m a visitor in an alien world, the fish and the turtles, octopus and eels all wondering just what the hell I am. I swim with raccoon butterfly fish ( yep, that’s what they look like!),  spotted and striped eels that shimmy in and out of their hidey holes in the reef, ghostly goat fish and skinny, blue pipe fish, convict tang (vertical black stripes on yellow bodies), rainbow wrasse, unicorn fish and the national fish of Hawaii  with the longest name of any fish anywhere: humuhumunukunukuapawai (also known more boringly as a rectangular trigger fish!) The Hawaiian green sea turtle is ever-present, this reptile lumbers along while on shore but soars like a bird below the surface of the sea. To swim with this graceful creature is to know poetry in motion.

The ocean’s shade of blue down here defies description, it’s eternal and all encompassing. I feel that if I swim out beyond the reef my entire being will be subsumed into this deep and unfathomable mystery, my soul, my spirit and my physical body becoming one with the creatures and the very essence of the Pacific. The concept of eternity is impossible for the human mind to grasp but as I look out into the silent blue depths I think perhaps I may be onto something. The human race can go on and on with its insane, self-destructive ways but when all is said and done the deep blue eternity that is the sea will still be here. There are only so many secrets that she will reveal, there is so much that is completely unknowable. I’m always humbled while I’m here, whether snorkeling or gliding along the surface on a paddle board. I look around me and feel very small, I’m barely a speck among the vastness.

Humuhumunukunukuapawa