Harvesting Coconuts

In the Philippines, a special person is required to harvest coconuts. By special I mean someone with Evel Knievel sensibilities. You know, someone not afraid of riding a motorcycle into the side of a bus at full speed and not afraid of falling from the sky.

Just such a person climbed a tall coconut tree just outside Desiree’s father’s house. Once at the top, he both trimmed fronds and dropped a dozen or so coconuts to the ground.

Here’s the thing, the guy was no spring chicken. I would place him in his mid-forties, but he was wiry and sure of himself. And he climbed to what I would guess was something over 70 feet above the ground to begin whacking away at the fronds and fruit with a long knife. Consider this: he climbed the tree with bare hands and feet. No rope. No safety strap. Just a man and his own skills and confidence.

I’ve posted a photograph I captured of the man as he dropped a coconut to the ground. If you look toward the top center of the photograph, you can see the tall coconut tree he climbed. You should also be able to pick out the man clinging to the tree. Finally, in a patch of blue sky below that, you can see one of the coconuts he dropped.

Coconut Tree Harvest

—Mitchell Hegman