Pandanus

"First of all, how do you pronounce it?" the Cook asked the friendly Marine Department official we'd invited to dinner.
"PAN-dah-nuss," the Official replied, which was good as this ended a debate which had been raging for several days. "It's a very useful plant," the Official went on for our benefit. It was one of those weird cross-cultural moments when you, the foreigner, take a keen interest in something they, the local, find mundane. Luckily the Official had grown up in Fiji, which in the Pacific is the Gateway to Everywhere Else, and he humored us. He went on to explain that the Pandanus tree is extremely strong so the wood is good for building houses. The leaves can be woven into thatched roofs "that last ten years" or used as cigarette papers. The edible fruit (which is what introduced us to Pandanus in the first place) is rich in betacarotine. When it is raw, it has stringy fibers that work as dental floss. It can be boiled in coconut milk, or mashed and dried into something like fruit leather.
"The best thing to do," interjected our other dinner guest, the ex-American Surfer, "is layer that with coconut cream like lasagna."
I thought about something the Man from Christmas told me. He was cleaning a fresh fish and carefully set aside the stomach for later use. "In Kiribati we believe if you don't use the whole animal, it will come back."
We must have had beliefs like this at one time. I wonder when we lost them.