Bamboo– a magical plant.  Magical.  It’s so foreign to me, growing up in the Minnehap with no bamboo.  Even though it’s everywhere here, I’m still so excited by it.

Bamboo on Lamma

There is a really magical moment that will always stick out in my mind.  It was the first time I wandered through a bamboo forest, which happened to be in Maui.  I can’t recall the name of the trail we were on, but it was just a path, surrounded by bamboo.  The sound that the bamboo knocking into each other created when the breeze blew is magical.  I couldn’t resist buying my parents a bamboo wind chime when I left.  If you are in Minnesota and are dying to know what it sounds like, head over to my parents.  It’s outside on the porch.  Or just Youtube it.
In college, I took a class where we learned to chant in Hawaiian and performed at the Merrie Monarch Festival.  We wore lava-lavas that we had printed on with carved bamboo as our stamps.
I also made a nose flute from a stalk of bamboo that actually worked and sounded somewhat pretty.  You just had to make sure you weren’t sick with a runny nose before playing it.  It’s also somewhere in my storage unit.
While eating our Sichuan dinner we had some fresh tender ribbons of bamboo shoots. Delicious.
It appears I’m some sort of bamboo hoarder.

It’s so versatile. Besides all of this, it can be used for tools, construction, utensils, fabric, furniture, medicine, even paper.  There are a few myths and legends that speak of it.  I am not even sure that the list ends there.  Plus, pandas like to eat it and who doesn’t love pandas.  Want to see something cute?  Watch this video.  I know you’ve already seen it, but watch it again.  You won’t regret it.

Here are a few shots that of random bamboo from around the island.

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I have now written Bamboo so many times it’s starting to look wrong to me.  Happy Aloha Friday!