of the avocado battle

It’s Good Friday – and it’s a very good friday for avocados.

I grew up consuming them in smoothie form, blended with a few ice cubes and a slick of sweetened condensed milk. I also grew up watching the battle between good and evil before my eyes.

One of our neighbors had a huge, hulking tree that pumped out the biggest avocados that side of Java. During the dry season, the tree would literally drip with furry caterpillars jostling for leaves. They munched the tree down to within an inch of its life. But then, just when we thought it was over, the rainy season would blow in, rinsing away the caterpillar tracks and soaking the tree’s roots with thick monsoon  tears.

The tree would send out shoots and blooms and baby avocado nubs, and we knew then that the caterpillars hadn’t won.

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