Today I planted a Hawaiian kava variety called Hiwa. It’s a tall black stemmed type that was reserved only for priests and royalty and those who dared to break the rules met an untimely death.
Hiwa was a variety that was offered to the gods of hula in exchange for knowledge and inspiration. There is an old Hawaiian chant that referred to it’s sacredness recorded by Nathaniel Bright Emerson:
“The day of revealing shall see what it sees:
A seeing of facts, a sifting of rumors,
An insight won by the black sacred ‘awa,
A vision like that of a god!”
Originally posted on 2021-09-24, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.