... natural porn and games ...

... I find double entendre almost anywhere given a sniff of a chance ... the prickly bush at the end of my driveway is in its reproductive phase and neighbors have been cruising to collect the seed pods of the procreating plant ... the seeds they seek have immediate allure in their shiny smoothness and are irresistably tempting to touch ... indeed ...

... when it comes to mischievous metaphor and suggestive simile you can't beat nature ... the ripened hardness of the beans are purposefully exposed when the time is just right ...

... "the little men in the boat" present themselves to destiny ...

... some reach fertile ground to start another cycle but others are prized as gaming pieces for a local board game called Warri ... said to encourage contemplation and cunning ...

... African in origin, specifically Akan from West Africa, this game sometimes unfolds like life itself in a nascent form ... although onlookers are encouraged to participate, it's essentially a two-player game, and successful stratagems can result in a triumphant grand slam ...

... and, as if the naughty-by-nature visualization of the labial display isn't enough, in the Caribbean Warri is traditionally played with these nickernuts ... locally known as "nickars"...

... I'm not making this up ...

... you say papaya ...

... but hey, let's talk pawpaw for a minute ... call it papaya if ya wanna, but I'll go with how I was raised to sow it, grow it and know it ... pawpaw trees grow easily, given fertile conditions, and they can present a positive practicum, educating people on raising a fruit-bearing plant, a metaphor for life's cycle itself ...

... this one was grown by someone else and came to me ready for consumption ... a couple of judicious morning incisions and I had cut open the most promising pawpaw of the year so faw ...

... I mean, far ...

... the fragrance hit me in the nose, which doesn't always happen ... pawpaws vary from plant to plant, ranging from watery and delicate to spicy and pungent, with a wide spread of sweet and delightful in-between ... hmm ...

 ... some of these succulent, fleshy, smooth-skinned delicacies come flush with seeds, which resemble tadpole-sized spermatozoa or uterine ovum depending on your ... ahh ... perspective ...

... jus' sayin' ...

... those womb-like visuals bring the words ovarian and fallopian to fore, making it fitting that the first wedge be cubed to nurture in a schooler's snackbox ... but further parsing, to provide breakfast for three adult couples, is a figurative reflection of fecundity and an underappreciated manifestation of papaya aphrodisia ...

... remind me to canvas for feedback ...

... 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 ...