Palms

                                                     Lucubration on palms along our lane
 
Palm trees line the lane.  They thrive without rigor.  They are docile and regal.  They neither threaten nor intimidate, as do soft-wood giants towering and toppling.  Nor do they tempt greedy timber plunderers to hunt their logs.  Palm wood is not good for that.

Palm trees line the lane.  There are a hundred thousand types of them, so says our agricultural university, euphemistically.  They mean the number is beyond counting.  Yet the count stands at 2,600 by the university’s palmologists.

Palm trees line the lane.  They ask little but are generous.  Water from coconuts is considered so pure it is holy, used for sacred rites. Their fronds drape ceremonial gates.  Betel nuts from areca palms are featured in royal rituals.  Palm trees produce the largest seeds and the largest leaves of any plant.  Cultures in lands with snow might not know these things.
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Palm trees line our lane as they lined lanes leading to Jerusalem.  They symbolized peace and plenty.  Palm leaves were awarded to heroes and waved to welcome them home victorious.