D01 Isla Colón, Bocas del Toro PANAMA 1502

I'm Chiquita banana and I've come to say    

Bananas have to ripen in a certain way

— United Fruit Company, “Chiquita Banana Song,” 1944

If the reader possessed an imagination capable of comprehending a banana plantation one-third of a mile wide and extending from New York City to Chicago, with this wilderness of bananas bisected by a well constructed and equipped railroad, he will begin to obtain a conception of what has been created from a virgin tropical wilderness.

— Frederick Upham Adams, “Conquest of the Tropics,” 1914

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch    

Daylight come and me wan' go home

— Traditional Jamaican work song arranged by Harry Belafonte, William Attaway, and Lord Burgess, “Day-O,” 1956 

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