All the Pleasures Bananas Bring to Us - Essay Example

Banana It is hard not to like a banana. In fact I bet there are very few people in the world who actively dislike bananas. In terms of design it is a simple but distinctive form. No other fruit is like it, and this individuality is part of its attraction. There are thousands of round fruits, and a few oval shapes, but how many of them can boast a sleekly curved form like a banana? When I was a kid I didn’t know that bananas grow on trees or in huge bunches. That was something I learned much later from watching cartoons. I just thought they appeared in a little cluster like you find in the store. I liked the shape of these little bunches, and the way they curve like a hand inside a baseball glove, or the way they hang like decorations along the top of the fruit stall. The banana is not easy to pack into boxes. I know that designers have tried to make plastic banana boxes that you can use to carry them around in but I bet the bananas of the world are doing their best not to be the required shape! Some are too long. Some are too short. Some have a curve that is too deep, and some have a curve that is too shallow. The thin ones rattle around the box with too much space to spare and the thick ones ensure that the lid doesn’t close properly. Bananas just prove that Nature is not just there to be squeezed into convenient shapes for people to carry around. Each banana prides itself on its natural curves and this is the way it should be. Whenever I look at a banana I appreciate its simple shape and the promise of sweetness inside. The best kind are the fresh, young ones, still juicy and firm to the touch. They are completely and utterly yellow. This pure color defines a banana for me. I know that people talk about canary yellow or primrose yellow or daffodil yellow or even lemon yellow but for me the absolutely purest yellow is the yellow of a nice young banana. This is the yellow of hot countries, where the sun beats down and the palm trees sway, and people lie in hammocks when it is too hot to work. This is sunshine yellow in edible form. It is not a cool yellow like lemon and this association with heat makes it a happy fruit. I hear Caribbean steel drums and reggae music when I think of lemons. It is an easy fruit, a relaxing fruit, full of the light and laughter of an island home. Lemons are used to make lemonade, but they are not so delicious as the lovely banana, and they certainly can’t be eaten without a lot of backup in the form of sugar. Bananas are independent, proud, and strong and this is what makes them so attractive to me. Fresh bananas have a particular smell which is not too sweet, with a touch of bitterness. When manufacturers try to imitate this in banana milkshakes or banana candy then they always overdo the flavour. Artificial banana flavour tastes like what it is: a bunch of chemicals and some yellow coloring. When you bite into the flesh of a young banana there is a strange feeling on your teeth that comes from the fibres on the outside of the fruit. It reminds me of rhubarb and it is not exactly unpleasant but not exactly tasty either. The older a banana gets, the stronger becomes its smell, and there is something distasteful about the smell of overripe banana. There is a gradual process of decay starting with a few small brown spots. After that it goes brown in larger patches. Finally it turns black and horrible. I just hate it when I peel the skin back from a partly brown banana and find the insides all soft and syrupy. The whole point of the skin is to keep it fresh inside, as if the fruit had its very own cool bag. An old banana feels like it is decomposed and it doesn’t look good either. When I was a baby my mother used to mash a banana with a fork and feed it to me from a cup. Even when I was older, she used to do this sometimes and I confess that there have been times when I have even done it for myself. It is a comforting food, bland and yet sweet. It reminds me of safety and home. It is the potato of the fruit family because it is so easily used in different dishes. My favourite is banana split ice cream. There has to be chocolate and nuts, and cream and a whole heap of ice cream to make a banana truly feel at home. Some people eat it fried, and even with chicken in Maryland, but that is taking things a bit too far. A banana doesn’t need to be cooked to be just perfect. In fact sometimes I think a banana is the ultimate healthy snack food. It has sugar and carbs to provide energy and I have read that it contains potassium and other trace elements and minerals that are good for your health. Another unique feature of a banana is its texture. I can’t think of any other object in the world that has the texture of a banana. On the outside the skin is smooth and neither soft like a strawberry nor hard like an orange. It gives a little if you press on it, and the inside is tender but again not completely soft. I once watched a chimpanzee eating a banana and I wondered if he would peel it like a human. He seemed to like throwing it around and passing it from hand to hand. Apparently he, too, was fascinated by its shape. Then he opened it sideways, so that a crack appeared all along one side. He bent it backwards so that the flesh popped out and he ate this part first. After that he played with the skin for a while and then ate that too! It was so clear that he enjoyed the physical properties of the fruit and I can fully understand what he found to be so enchanting. In the interests balanced writing I have tried and tried to think of the negative side of the banana. There is, of course, the old trick of the banana skin on the ground that trips up the unwary passerby. Actually, I have never seen anyone outside of a comic book actually falling down because of an inappropriately placed banana. I think this is just a myth invented to give bananas a bad name. Similarly, I have seen stories on the internet of innocent people being bitten by a sneaky tarantula that was using a bunch of bananas as a hiding place. In this case, though, the bananas were just innocent bystanders and they can’t be held responsible for the creatures that take up residence in their shady bunch. All in all, I am grateful for all the pleasures that bananas bring to us. They feed us when we are hungry and provide treats when we celebrate. They remind us of the carefree joy of summertime and the comfort of childhood. Above all they remind us that the world is a wonderful place, full of things that are designed to be both beautiful and unique. Read More