“HŪI!” MY NEIGHBOR Wanna’s voice makes a two-syllable birdsong out of the greeting. “I have bananas for you.”
The bananas are a pale emerald color, still firmly attached to the thick stem, and I accept them gratefully. Then we stroll around my ramshackle garden, inspecting the plants. Enormous papayas are hanging from the trees whose seeds Wanna helped me plant, and the blue ginger she gave me has shot up a beautiful leaf with a purple stripe down the middle.
Wanna and I make plans to raid a lilikoi patch later that day. We share a passion for the sour, seedy fruit whose yellow orbs look like children’s Easter eggs hidden in the leaves. We’ve hunted for them in
