The Cashew plant is worth a thousand words!

Our Own Legend of the Cashew Fruit

We love listening to stories. Stories in the form of anecdotes, myths and legends created a huge impact in our lives that we look up to our own Filipino icon in the name of “Lola Basyang” (Grandmother Basyang) who is, actually the pen name of Severino Reyes (1861-1942), our very own Filipino playwright and writer for children’s stories.

Storytelling is indeed a powerful medium in communicating ideas to an audience. So, we thought of inventing our own legend to highlight the worth of the cashew plant being the second most valuable nut crop in the world. The idea of this legend started from the famous Filipino riddle that says, “May isang prinsesa, nakaupo sa tasa.” (“A beautiful princess, on the cup she sits.”)

What is your answer to the riddle?

A Contemporary Legend of the Cashew Fruit

This is a story of a beautiful princess named Cashy. She lived in a bendy palace right at the heart of the Palawan land forests. She was so loved by the king and queen for her beauty. The whole kingdom would ask his royal highness to display Princess Cashy outside the bendy palace so the passersby would fill their eyes with such lovely sight. But the princess grew very sad sitting all day at the terrace doing nothing. She was not allowed to take a stroll, play, or even chat with friends. She felt so inadequate that she compared herself to a rotten fruit or stale wine. In the middle of this sad musing, a magic cup appeared and promised the princess she’ll never be sad again. The cup asked Cashy to sit inside it and it mustered a magic spell that made Cashy the most useful princess in the entire kingdom. The bendy palace turned into a bendy tree and it bore a beautiful fruit with the shape of a cup and surprisingly so, its nut sat on top of it! People in the entire kingdom found this bendy tree very useful especially its lovely fruit. But wait, what could have happened to Princess Cashy?