Since moving to Hawaii, I’ve learned that palm trees are not really trees: they are something different. Inside their trunks you won’t find hard wood growing outward, new tissue added ring by ring. Instead you’ll find a jumble of spongy tissue, scattered instead of arranged. This lack of conventional structure is what gives the palm its flexibility and makes it supremely adapted to my son’s favorite hobby, as well as to the gentle island breezes that periodically coalesce into ruthless hurricanes.
