About the Fig Leaf

The fig leaf is the local name for the leaf of the banana tree from my ancestral home of Trinidad. For many years it has been used in cooking recipes or  healing remedies. The fig leaf is not a useless portion of the fig (banana) plant but rather it is very resourceful. 

The fig leaf has been used to carry water by the original Amerindians of Trinidad. I was told a sort of basket or basin was made with the green leaves and water was transported in it, by the original Arawak and Carib Indians.  Later cultures used it to wrap pounded, cooked bananas mixed with seasoned meat, which is wrapped tightly in the fig leaf and tied with string made from corn haux strips or portions of the banana leaf itself and cooked atop very high heat in an iron pot.

This dish is called many names in different countries. It is called Pay-Me in Caribbean countries like Trinidad, and in Latin countries like Puerto Rico; it is called Paella. The taste of the food cooked in the fig leaf is very delicious.

In older culture before Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean Island of Trinidad it is believed that the Caribs and Arawak Indians who inhabited the Island used the leaf to heal wounds during war or as a bandage.  

For me I simply love to look at the fig leaf and marvel at the lines that are so strategically designed on each one.  I imagined a mythical era when messages or letters could have been penned/inked on each line and sent to some far away  tribe. So for all these reasons I chose to used to fig leaf as a logo for this news page; which represents, the mission behind bringing you a conglomeration of different type of News.