Jerry Konanui, the Native Hawaiian expert on kalo and many other traditional plants, has passed. He was a bridge between so many kinds of knowledge: Native Hawaiian, Western scientific, agricultural, culinary and visceral.
The last time I was with him, he was patiently instructing young Hawaaians on how to tell variouis varieties of kalo (taro) by the most subtle details of coloration of leaf veins and stems, offering a story for each. He was so astonishlgy obserevant of this world that I am sure he will do well in the next.
He knew more about taro diversity than any botanist alive, and even more about cultural expressions in agricultural traditions.
Ohhhh what a loss, but what a gift he has been to so many of us!
-Brother Coyote
