The Palm Tree Child
Once upon a time, there was a barren old woman, a woman whose destiny had never given her the opportunity to know the joy and the glory of motherhood.
One day, she went to the palm grove to pick ripe palm nuts. While she busied herself with the task, she made a silent wish to the palm tree. She wished with all her heart that one of its fruits could transform into a child that she would adopt and give infinite motherly love. That would be, she thought, the greatest joy of her existence.
The palm tree seemed to hear her prayer and grant her wish. Before her own eyes, one of the nuts transformed into a child. The old woman, overwhelmed with joy, took him tenderly in her arms and brought him home.
When she arrived at the village, a farmer, seeing the child, asked the old woman to prepare the child so that he could help him cultivate. The old woman accepted and gave the child to the farmer to accompany him in his field.
However, in the middle of the day, as the sun's rays burned the earth, the child began to melt little by little until he was entirely transformed into red palm oil in the middle of the field.
A parrot, witnessing this mysterious scene, flew to a tree branch and landed. There he began to sing to the old woman.
Nyɔnxónɔ, Nyɔnxónɔ,
O vi tɔ wɛ zún amivɛ lété
Aloɛ mă mɔn go vi dé nă ba dé mɛn
E da ʃɔ mɛn crú
Bo tɔ afɔmɛn wliwa
Hearing the bird's song, the old woman was deeply intrigued. The parrot sang his song a second time. Filled with a terrible feeling and left speechless, the old woman began to run to the farmer’s field.
When she arrived, she discovered with horror that her child had melted into red palm oil and that the farmer was eating yam covered in the red oil in the middle of the field.
The old woman immediately asked for her child. But the farmer responded in a detached tone that the child had disappeared in the field.
Her heart broken, the old woman turned back and went home, inconsolable.
Since that day, the elders teach youth that we must carefully cherish the blessings life gives us. The child that is received as a blessing must be cared for as a treasure, as the burning sun of negligence consumes even miracles.