Tales of the Kapok Tree

In the late 1950s, my parents purchased land on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. They were excited about building their dream retirement home in paradise. I shared the excitement with them and could not wait to explore this new adventure.

I volunteered to participate in the first work party to do some bush cutting and site selection for the home. The land had been vacant for over 50 years and was quite dense and overgrown. The first day of bushwacking only yielded some pathways for exploring. On the second day, we cleared our way to a level area that housed a giant Kapok tree. The locals called it a “silk cotton tree.” It stood tall and majestic with extending arms that provided a lot of shade. We knew this would be where we would build our home. This level land and the magnificent shade would be the perfect place to live in harmony with this tree.

Two years later while working on the house, I was approached by a local West Indian gentleman carrying a backpack who spoke with that magical Caribbean accent. He introduced himself as Charles Bastian, a longtime resident of the island with an unusual request to make. I was anxious to meet a local and extremely interested in his request. We exchanged pleasantries and got right to it.

“Mr. Hart, I would like to have my lunch under the kapok tree if you wouldn’t mind.” My response was, “By all means, you are welcome to do so.” And so, Charles unpacked his backpack and began to eat his lunch. Charles stopped by afterward to thank me. I asked, “Why lunch today and why under this tree?” With a giant smile, Charles responded, “Well you see, today is my birthday and I was born under that kapok tree. My grandparents were sharecroppers who worked the land here and they had a tool shed right here under that tree. When you cleared the land, you brought back this incredibly special place to three generations of my family.”

Charles Bastian became a close friend of the family, and often on his birthday we would entertain a visit for him to celebrate his special day and his birthplace under the old kapok tree.

Fifty years later, the grandchildren of those pioneers who cleared the land have built a beautiful resort complex with that kapok in the center of all the activity, appropriately named “Kapok Villas.”

The University of the Virgin Islands conducted a heritage tree survey and concluded that this kapok tree exceeded 200 years of age! I wonder how many more tales it could tell.

By Marv Hart