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 Large, lush hapu'u ferns dominate the mid-level canopy of the rain forest. "Kolea, follow me!" Naupaka yelled. Faithfully I followed my older brother into the forest. We were on our way to "the island," as we called it, a densely vegetated hill bisected by a 10-foot-deep fault that had a cave on one side. Later I learned that this raised geological formation is called a tumulus. At the time (10 years ago), I was only interested in exploring the vastness of the dark, mysterious rain forest that surrounds our house. My brother and I made a habit of exploring the forest. Each time we would go a little deeper, a little farther away from our house. Much to our mother's constant worry, we explored the lava tubes, holes, and cracks that were the products of ancient lava flows. On our adventures we would build forts from the dried-up, crinkly-brown hapu'u fronds and pretend we lived there. We slid in the mud, balanced precariously on fallen trees, looked at plants, and watched birds. The forest became our home. |
These fond childhood memories always included being respectful of all the native plants in the forest. We were taught from a very young age to respect the hapu'u and the other native plants of our forest. When we trimmed the hapu'u around our house, my brother and I had to be very careful of the new shoots (the keiki, or children of the hapu'u) coming up. If we accidentally cut one, my mom taught us to stand next to the hapu'u and silently apologize to the spirit of the hapu'u for the loss. We also learned about the horrible "kahili ginger," a fast-spreading broad-leafed exotic plant. Kahili ginger has the potential to destroy the forest by choking out the native vegetation and replacing it with dense thickets of impenetrable ginger. The eradication of this noxious weed provided much entertainment and pocket money for Naupaka and me. We would slaughter thickets of ginger with hard wooden sticks, then dig up the huge, potato-like roots. Doing this service for the forest provided us with a great sense of satisfaction, and Mom paid us for the dug-up tubers. Now my approach to protecting our forest is somewhat less brutal (although my mom still has me dig ginger roots). I'm trying to learn how each component of the rain forest serves in the functioning and sustainability of the whole. |
        
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