There’s a Filipino folktale about how the Pineapple got it’s name.
Thoughts of perusing the market with Mum in El Nido last time we were in the Philippines. Got a tricycle there cos it was too hot to walk, we spent hours roaming the stalls soaking it all in. Mum in her element haggling, chatting with the vendors.
Pungent sweet smells, salty air, gasoline. Pawalano and Tagalog chatter, TSINELAS (flip flops) slapping in the dust, children playing, babies sleeping, tricycles arriving light and leaving heavy, coconut shredding machines, the THWACK of machetes, BUKO (young coconut) juice flowing and rich rich colours everywhere.
We left with bags of PRUTAS (fruit) and SUMAN (glutinous rice cakes) all sorts of KAKANIN (rice goods) to eat on the beach.
There was a mother and her daughter Pina who lived in a tiny village hut, they were poor and the mother worked all hours to feed them.
Pina was spoilt and lazy and just wanted to play in the backyard. When her mother asked Pina to set the table she said “but I cant find the plates or the table!” when she asked her to sweep the room… “but I can’t find the broom!”
And when her mother was sick and asked Pina to make a simple porridge for them she just moaned “but I can’t find the ladle!”
“OH I WISH YOU WOULD GROW A HUNDRED EYES SO YOU COULD FIND THINGS!!!”
The mother went to bed, Pina was quiet.
When the mother got up to make the porridge Pina had gone. Days, weeks, months went by. Still heartbroken the mother carried on and one day sweeping the backyard where Pina used to play she noticed a strange new plant and a fruit like a head with hair on top, it had a hundred eyes.
She named it PINYA (Pineapple)
Pearls of the NHS 