THE PALM TREE LESSON
I can’t help but teach you about the palm tree. The Bible says that the righteous shall flourish. The first thing a palm tree does is send its roots—advantageous roots—down to get anchored, to find water, and to absorb nutrients. As a young man, you must deepen your knowledge and go deep. I used to read a lot. I would read at night, buy second-hand books, and immerse myself in them. I listened to BBC, Googled anything I encountered, and used the dictionary regularly. I read the Guinness Book of Records. I was sinking my roots down into the soil of knowledge to extract vital nutrients.
Secondly, the palm tree has thorns that can pierce you. When the palm tree is young, it doesn’t allow people to easily climb or touch it. People are cautious around it. Similarly, as a young man, don’t be open to all kinds of societal influences, especially when it comes to relationships. There are boys that girls fear, and I must say, women fear me. Don’t allow yourself to be vulnerable or overly exposed to the various negative influences in your environment.
The next point: As the palm tree starts bearing fruit, it continues to do so while growing tall, with thorns still around it. It grows to about 30 feet before it sheds these thorns, allowing only those who are truly serious to access its fruit. So, don’t be everywhere or overly available. Don’t dilute yourself.
Another lesson from the palm tree: in Africa, when someone dies, there’s a tradition of tying something from the palm tree on the coffin. They remove the center of the palm tree because once you remove that center, the tree dies. This symbolizes the death of a palm tree, which represents fruitfulness, joy, and multifaceted productivity. In our culture, if you want to block access to your farm, you tie a fresh yellowish-green palm frond as a barricade. It’s believed that if someone crosses it, they will die. When our people go to war, they take a leaf of the palm tree and put it in their mouths to keep them from talking, thus avoiding distractions or defiance. You must protect yourself in the same way. As I became more popular, I stopped going out unnecessarily, I didn’t eat just anywhere, and I didn’t associate with everyone. I protected myself and my integrity. I didn’t do what everyone else did.
The palm tree also develops the capacity to carry multiple bunches, support lizards, snakes, and even allow other plants to grow on it. This is because the palm tree grows from the inside. If you carve around a palm tree, unlike other trees, it does not die. Even if you dig a hole through the center of a palm tree so that you can see through it, it won’t die. The growth of a palm tree is organic, from the inside out, much like your mind, which is the factory of your life.
When the wind blows, you will see the palm tree sway, bending forward, but it does not break. Palm trees rarely break because they have enough fibbers inside them. You should strengthen yourself similarly, developing resilience.
Lastly, the leaves of the palm tree have so many fronds that they trap enough sunlight for photosynthesis, enabling the tree to bear fruit. The fruit of the palm tree, when crushed, produces palm oil. When you hydrogenate and bleach it, you get cooking oil. Further hydrogenation yields margarine. Cracking the palm nut gives you palm kernel, which can be crushed to produce palm kernel oil (PKO). The chaff from the palm kernel is used to make palm kernel cake, which can be enriched with lysine, calcium, and other nutrients to produce animal feed. The palm kernel oil can be saponified to produce soap, nitrated to produce detergent, and glycerine, a byproduct, can be nitrated to produce explosives. You must be multifaceted and resourceful, just like the palm tree.
I hope you’ve learned something.
I remain Dr. Charles Apoki
