Have you ever thought about coconuts?

The work Asia written by the fifteenth-century chronist João de Barros can prove to be a mine of information. Not only does the reader come across stories about the Portuguese presence in the Indian Ocean there, but also comments and descriptions of places and objects that caught the attention of the author. We mentioned chess some months ago, for example.

There is a chapter in the third Decade of Asia where Captain João Gomes is sent to the Maldives by the Governor Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. The episode gives João de Barros the opportunity to describe the islands and, this time, it is the palm trees that fascinate him – “not the ones that give dates, but rather a round fruit the size of a men’s head, which consist of two layers before one gets to its kernel. Just like chestnuts”.

Now, coconuts did not grow in Portugal. It is in fact unlikely that Portuguese people in general had been acquainted with them before sailors started moving down the West coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean. That was probably the reason that led the chronist to dedicate nearly four pages to this fruit and the ways in which its parts could be used.

The work stars with the first external layer, which the book describes as apparently smooth. Once one gets past this smooth part, the pulp of the coconut is so fibrous that all of India uses ropes made with it. “Especially in sailing ropes, for the ones made with this thread are much safer and long-lasting at sea than any sort of flax.” The author then reminds us how Indian Ocean ships were not nailed, but sewn with such ropes.

The second inner layer is very hard. “It is the peel through which the fruit receives its vegetable nutriment. It has a sharp end, which wants to resemble a nose put in the middle of two eyes.” The description was alluding to what nowadays are called the two plugged and the one functional pore. According to the author, the Portuguese term “coco” to designate coconuts derives from this shape:

“[for] it is a name given by women to anything with which they want to scare the children. A name that stuck to [the fruit] to such an extent that no one knows of another. The one that the Malabari give it is Tenga and the Canarijs, Narle.”

Inside this second layer is the kernel. It is said to be “oilier than that of hazelnuts, inside of which there is very sweet water.” When coconuts start to germinate, they form a mass which the work claims to be thick as cream, soft and tasty. The author then concludes, as he approaches the end of his description:

“This round fruit and the palm tree which provides it seem to be among the most profitable things that God has given man, for both his substance and necessary use. Because, besides serving for that which we have already mentioned, from coconut are also made honey, vinegar, oil and wine. Besides, it is a very substantial provision in itself, mixed with rice, and by other ways the Indians serve it in their meals.”

The value attributed to coconuts nowadays has only increased, especially due to its nutritional health benefits. People around the Indian Ocean have used these fruits and explored the ways in which it could be used for centuries. When the Portuguese started sailing there, they started being disseminated worldwide via Europe. [Inês Bénard]