THE TREE OF LIFE — Coconut Tree 🌴

Why do you think the coconut tree was called “The Tree of Life”?

Looking up at the coconut tree, you can see the huge green leaves, the fruit, and the trunk. What you see is what you get as they say since everything about and every part of the tree has many uses. In other words, there’s nothing to be thrown away from it.

💡From its leaves, we can make a chicken nest where hen’s can lay their eggs. We just have to half the fronds, weave, and roll it up to form a basket.

💡The mid-rib of the leaflets can be used also to make traditional broomsticks that are widely used here in the Philippines for cleaning and sweeping purposes.

💡In Cebu, the leaves have been used for making “pusó” or hanging rice.

💡The coconut juice or the buko juice from the coco fruit which we called “butong” tastes nutritiously sweet when it’s young. Want some refreshment? Here it is. We can drink it fresh from the crust. We can also mix it with milk alone or with additional biscuits and a soft drink along with the scraped coconut meat served best when cold. In Bisaya, we call it “Lamaw”. It's tasty and delicious. Must try!

💡Coconut 🥥 can be eaten whether it's cooked or not. When the coconut is old enough, we can open its husk and peel off its meat from the hard shell or we’ll use coconut grater or “kaguran” to grate the white flesh. Freshly grated coconut can now be used in different food recipes. We can also generate flour out of it. Moreover, to produce milk from the coconut, we need to extract and squeeze out the grated meat with a little bit of water. The milk can now also be used to add milky flavor to our food. The milk is mainly used in making “Biko” and “Binignit” in the Philippines. Coco milk also is used to condition our hair. Just brush on an ample amount to the hair and massage gently for a silky, shiny, and smoother outcome. We call it “lanslub” or lana’s lubi.

💡We can also extract oil from coconut. Coconut oil is believed to have been healthier than any other oil because it contains promising benefits. The oil has been also widely used for different purposes. Ideally, it’s for cooking but it was seen with unique components that are also good for skin and hair.

💡The coconut husks can also be used for planting plants. Plants that don’t normally need soils such as orchids. Coconut husks with hard shells can be used for scrubbing floors, just cut it into halves and it’s ready. Meanwhile, the hard shell or “bagol” in our dialect can be used as a plate or a container. Can also be used as ornaments.

💡Coconut trunks are used as a construction material for building native houses or simple sanctuaries.

💡Dried parts or the unused parts of the coconut can be used as fuel to the fire.

So, I hope you found reasons why it was called the tree of life. And how beneficial it is to humankind nowadays.