During a recent visit to a holiday resort, I noticed the sea food restaurant having the roof covered by woven coconut palm leaves. I notice this occasionally as a fashion narrative in public places. I looked around the restaurant for a fire extinguisher station close by, as a fire safety measure when roof is made of coconut palm leaves.
However, this sight took me back to my childhood. Most of the houses in our village had roof made of woven coconut pal leaves at that time. The clay too tiles were expensive and in the fifties concrete roofing was restricted to urban areas.
I remember learning to weave the coconut palm leaves from my mother. We had a cow shed and an outhouse which needed roofing, which were by the count palm leaves until the late sixties when they were changed in to tile roofing. The palm leaf roofing needed to be changed every year.
I loved that time sitting with my mother after supper in the courtyard in a kerosene lamp light ( Electric connection arrived in our village in the early sixties) weaving the palm leaves. It was a daily activity, till we had woven enough for both buildings, lasting for about three months. My father would drag the palm leaves from underneath the palm trees, prepare them for weaving by soaking them in water. The pattern of weaving had a structure, when one had to use both hands to weave them in two opposite directions.
The interesting part of these times was the several stories I heard from my mother about her childhood. She had two sisters and one brother. The three girls seem to have been closer in age, because of which they had several experiences in common. My mother's interest in becoming a teacher was her childhood dream. Her forty years of experience as a teacher were marked by some special encouraging events, one of which was, when she was chosen for advanced training in activity based teaching of primary school children.
The coconut palms were used by the farmers as timber for the houses to make beams, coconut pulp used for cooking and extracting coconut oil from copra, its shells used to make serving spoons before aluminium and steel spoons were available, the husk of the coconut used for making coir, the slender sticks of the palm leaves used to make broom, etc. Apart from the leaves used for roofing, the coconut palms provided some other benefits. One that was significant at that time was its emergence as a product for income generation. The coconut palms could be seen in the courtyard of every household in our village.
The food habits of people in Kerala were influenced by the coconut pulp, contributing it to be an essential ingredient for cooking.
About seventy years later now, the use of coconut is for cooking and extracting oil. The husk is used for making coir although most of the ropes in the market are made out of plastic fibres. The coconut farming is not so popular now as greater care than what was needed earlier, to protect the tender plants from pests are needed now. Out of about fifty coconut saplings we planted in the last ten years, only five are surviving now.
Times and tastes have changed.
I still come across in some homes serving spoons made from coconut shells in use; window curtains made of coconut fibres, and coconut stems used for making an over to roast clay bricks. They are attempts to recall the memories and turn them for a fashionable purpose.
We have a history of coconut palms serving multiple purposes; but the uses are confined to just a few now!
The memories of a mother-child conversation, while weaving the coconut palm leaves, ares till fresh in my mind! My mother was warm, caring and had an appealing style of story narration!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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