... mango walk an' talk ...

... "in Antigua ev'ryt'ing come wit' de rain"... so said my bredrin as he led me off the beaten track into the bush where his friend lives amid bountiful surroundings ... cosseted and sustained by fruit bearing foliage of myriad description ...

... leaving the road ... well past the point where pavement becomes dirt and stone ... diving into underbrush at the threadbare tamarind tree ... sweeping aside tall sharp Guinea grasses suitable for feeding livestock or medicinal teas (we have no ailments or cattle) ... ignoring ripening Noni fruit (too labour-intensive) ... and avoiding the prickly pineapple slips underfoot ... our mission is straightforward ... the objective is mango ...













... the ascendant Jamaican country-bwoy in me should not have been surprised at the variety of types of mango I found in this one location ... but perhaps for that very reason I pulsated with craven excitement as I climbed tree after tree to sample and choose specifically targeted fruit ...

... shape and size ... colour and smell ... texture and degree of ripeness ... not to mention taste ... all mangoes are not created equal ... and when the season arrives in The Caribbean the connoisseur can afford to be fussy ... with hundreds of extant varietals (e.g. Nevis alone boasts over forty) there's plenty to choose from ... these three are even called Choice ...












... I invariably measure each mango against my all-time favourites ... Uncle Stan's incomparable East Indian mango, the ever-popular St. Julian (Julie), the little-known Tringram hybrid planted at my childhood home ... a curiously shaped Thai import with a flat seed that I paid an arm-and-a-leg for in Vancouver's Chinatown some time ago ... and top of the heap I rate the rounded, Indian-derived, Jamaican Bombay ... the one with the distinctively nubile looking, nipple-ish-tip ...

... but ... I'm further afield now and already this season I've enjoyed several new (to me) locally grown mango types ... I'm currently fanning on a Bombay aspirant called Sensation, which lives up to its name ...

... it mek me waa' write a poetry I a tell yu ...

... soft to the touch, must take a taste ...

... when fruits ripe ain't no time to waste ...

I'll have one of each and more of the best ... tasty, tart, j-j-juicy and sweet ... firm, sufficient flesh, at once eaten and drank ...

from under beguilingly hued, smooth cheekskin flank ...

irresistable, fragrant and sticky...

... and I'm still just talking about mangoes ...