Back in ’51
an English bloke come to Jamaica
as a agricultural instructor.
He come to St Thomas,
that’s where I born and grow.
I work at a place in New Monkland
planting banana.
He come to tell us
how to plant banana.
He said, “Banana supposed to plant
three feet apart.”
I say, “No.”
He say, “Yes.”
He’d just come out from England,
from the agricultural college.
So I took my machete
and chop a banana leaf.
He take his tape
and the banana leaf is six feet.
I say, “You want banana eight feet apart.
you get a good growth,
a good bearing.”
And then he bleieve what I’m saying.
I show him the right way
but his way was wrong
for he only learn it from a book.
But I work on a farm,
that’s my living.

William