A Story "going bananas"
Many, may years ago, there lived a beautiful
princes called Mariang Maganda, which means “the beautiful one”.
She lived near a large forest, wherein grew
the most beautiful, colourful, and fragrant plants and flowers. Everyday the
princess would walk trough the forest in order to pick beautiful flowers, which
she would then put together into a long garland. She would then wrap this chain
of many beautiful colors in her hair, around her neck, and over her body. These
flowers only accentuated the princess’ already considerable beauty.
One day, while the princess was in the
forest collecting flowers for a new garland, she came upon a hansome young man.
As soon as they looked into one another’s eyes, there was an immediate feeling
of mutual affection between them.
Everyday from that day onward, they met in
the forest where they would walk together through the flowers, hand in hand.
They were very, very much in love with
one another.
One day, as they walked through the carpet
of beautiful flowers in the forest, the princess commented on how particularly
beautiful the flowers looked on this day.
The young man smiled at the princess.
“These flowers are indedd beautiful,” he said, “but they are not as beautiful
as the flowers you will find in my world.” As soon as the words had left his
lips, the young amn realized that he should have not said them.
“what do you mean?” asked the puzzled
princess. “are you not from this world?”
The young man was now forced to tell the
beautiful princess the truth. “No,” he replied “I am from another world”. The
world of the gods, I am not a mortal.”
The princess was stunned. But before she
could comprehend what the young man has just said, he began to leave. But the
princess grabbed him by the arm and
pulled him back toward her, “wait! Do not go!” said the princess.
The young man look toward the hiorizon,
where the sun was setting fast. “I must return to my world before the sun goes
down at the end of the day,” he explained. Otherwise I will never be allowed to
return here to see you.”
“Then let me come to you to your world,”
pleaded the princess. “no!” answered the young man emphatically. “It is
strictly forbidden for mortals to enter the world of the gods”. Now please let
me go, Mariang Maganda, before the sun disappears.”
But the princess did not want the man to go
and clung onto his arm with a ll her might. “no, please don’t leave me!” she
begged. “I want to hold on to you forever!” but the young man struggled to free
himself from the soobing princes and ran toward the horizon, where the sun had
already set. He had left it too late and would never be able to return to visit
the princess in her world ever again. “I loveyou, Mariang MAganda!”. “He
shouted, as he disappeared over the horizon, never to be seen again”. The sobbing
pricess could not bear to watch her lover as he ran from her. But as she slowly
opened her tear- stained eyes, she was amazed to see that she was holding his
arms in her hands.
The princess decided to burry the young
man’s arm in the middle of the beautiful flowers which she adored so much. For
several days, the princess could not bring herself to visit the woods for fear
of bringing back painful memeries of the young amn she hinside her ad loved and
lost forver.
Instead she stayed inside laying in bed,
crying and sobbing. After a few days, the princess once more pluck up the
courage to visit the forest and see and smell the beautiful flowers, which she
loved so much.
When she enetered the forest and walked through the carpet of
flowers, she was amazed to see that a new and unusual plant had grown on the
spot where she had buried her lovers dismembered arms a few days earlier.
The astounded princess examined the plant,
which had wide, green leaves, but no branches. From that moment onward the
princess rush to the forest every morning to water this unusual plant and
whispered tender words into its large leaves, to encourage it to grow. The
princess tender, loving care did the trick. The unusual plant soon began to
bear large flowers. And before long, these flowers turned into long, yellow
fruits, which look like large fingers.
It was almost as though the fingers of her
lover, were reaching out to touch her.
Over the years, this unusual plant spawned many
more, all with fruit like long, curved, human fingers. Today we call this fruit
the Banana.
