The First Coconut Tree

Isn’t it amazing that a human being could turn into real coconut trees? This legend is about a first coconut tree that existed in the Marshall Islands. This person was named Tobolar, who born as a coconut. On the coconut fruit, there are eyes, mouth, and nose like a human being, and a shell that is brown, which the Marshallese has always used for cooking material. Tobolar had a brother named Lakom who hated him very much. Sometimes he teased his mother because of Tobolar. One day Tobolar turned himself into a coconut tree and produced many coconut trees, so on the Marshall Islands we have many coconut trees today. From the coconut, the people of the Marshall Islands can live a simple life by eating and drinking coconut fruit. We also use coconuts to create local medicines. It’s good to have coconut trees in the Marshall Islands today because of Tobolar. You can read more about this legend here: http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/legends/le-1-7.html