FOOD IN THE TROPICS 
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Clearings and Abandoned Fields 
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These are the best places to find food plants because they 
generally have been cultivated at some time or other and culti- 
vated forms of plants will persist long after fields have been 
abandoned. These places may occur along the shore or be found 
in the interior of the country. Nearly all of the fruits found 
there can be eaten. It is not possible or practicable to list all 
that you might find under such circumstances but there usually 
will be bananas and plantains. Ripe bananas are rarely found 
because the birds, bats, insects, and other creatures usually 
get to them first, but the green ones are edible when cooked. 
They may be boiled, fried, or roasted. Of course, you can pick 
a green bunch and let the fruit ripen but that takes time. The 
plantains, which you probably can’t tell from bananas and it 
doesn’t really matter anyway, are generally dark green, brown, 
or orange in color and will seem like green bananas. They 
should always be cooked. The flower buds and the tender 
growing tip at the upper end of the stem of these trees are also 
edible. Ripe bananas may be preserved by slicing them and 
then drying the pieces in the sun. 
The papaya (Fig. 21) also occurs around clearings and former 
habitations in the tropics. This is a tree-like plant growing up 
to 20 feet in height with a single stem and a tuft of long-stalked 
leaves at the top. On the stem below or among the leaves grow 
large melon-like fruits resembling elongated cantaloupes or musk- 
melons. The fruits are green before ripening. On reaching 
maturity they become yellowish green or yellow and squash-like. 
The flesh is pepsin flavored and truly delicious. The milky juice 
of the unripe fruits contains a substance that is an aid to diges- 
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