Coconut tree which lives over 50 years of productive life sometimes more than 80 years if left untarnished by human activity lives behind a tell tale story of the weather beaten life. If one looks at a human face at 80 (eighty) it leaves behind a sad tale of wrinkles but never leave behind the tale of destruction he or she has caused over his or her life time. On the contrary, the coconut tree tells us all the rough times it has had over the years, if we look at the way the trunk had twisted and turned against the air current around it.
In fact it can tell the exact time of the last grand cyclone it had managed to withstand on its own.
Unlike the human they are a barometer of wind currents of today and tomorrow.
In fact it can tell the exact time of the last grand cyclone it had managed to withstand on its own.
Unlike the human they are a barometer of wind currents of today and tomorrow.
If one looks at its leaves, the gentle rustle they create with the wind and how it raises a rhyming tune with some alarming whirring of a whirlwind, foretelling a thunderstorm that is about to land is something we have taken for granted but never given thought in any scientific manner.
We take it for granted that the water is abundant but at the same time pollute it in every possible way from Adams peak to the sea.
The same story is true for the coconut tree.
It is vandalized to the stem and we cry hard only when the coconuts go high in price but never cared to listen to its story and the windshield it creates on a daily basis.
My observation days back to my childhood inquiry not necessarily based on any scientific themes. If I wanted to fly a kite I look at the coconut trees and their leaves and then bring out the kite if I consider the conditions are favorable.
Then I get to a place where I can get the kite over the coconut trees quickly and off I go with the wind.
I never paused to think what a service it does as a wind breaker.
This little piece is to finally put to rest and peace of my mind with the wind physics (theory) of biological nature and facts which I call the biophysics of coconut saga.
I should have done this decades ago!
Not only the coconut tree stands to the wind upright but it divide the wind to upstream high and a downstream gentle for us to live in peace. This we forget when we chop it for fast growing development and consumption as timber.
It is the scene of coconut trees that touches my heart when the plane lands on Katunayake. It was strikingly beautiful 30 years ago but now we see s few coconut trees near the airport and the sudden thud of landing.
The landing is also not as smooth as it used to be.
I even go to the extend of saying that the planes used to land smoothly due to the coconut plantation driving the unnecessary tailspin and head wind currents well above the plane as it touches down making it easy for the pilots.
I wish our veteran pilots do some study on this keeping in mind those who were on service during the second world war II might know it better than the present day autopilot youngsters.
Coconut tree is a wind breaker and a windshielder.
Of course it will provide its trunks to climb when the next tsunami comes if we start growing thousands and thousand of them around our beeches instead of polluting hotels that divert the sewerage to the sea.
This is my wishful thinking but I am sure more trees will be down to move the fast development trends of our political mights.
Good Bye my friend windshield and welcome thy whirlwind!
