Jackfruit

I’ve never tasted a jackfruit before. There’ve been many I’ve passed, on roadside stands in tropical countries or heavily hanging from a laden tree. Today, a friend came into one of my classes and presented me with a jackfruit in all its spiky glory. Last night, this friend had been over at our house with a friend of his who grows many fruits on his property, one of them being jackfruit. After hearing that I’d never tried one, my friend’s friend offered to bring one to us. And that is how I got to carrying a heavy jackfruit into my 5B classroom.

As soon as the students saw me carrying it, they all reacted, calling it by name, proclaiming of its tastiness or lack there of. Most of the students said they liked the fruit, but there were some who didn’t. To the ones who didn’t like jackfruit, I asked the ever-usable question – “Why?”

“It feels like mud.”

“When I eat too much of it, it makes me want to vomit.”

I saw one student, who happened to be sitting right next to where I placed the jackfruit, scrutinizing the large mass in front of him. His eyes bulged a bit. Leki raised his hand and when I called on him, he said, “I don’t like it because it looks like my big head.”

As I took in his comment and inspected the fruit a little more, I realized he was right. The jackfruit greatly resembled the shape of Leki’s head, even the fruit’s spiky skin mirrored his gelled hair. Now I will inevitably think of Leki’s big head whenever I see a jackfruit.