Waiting for Big Banana

Waiting for Big Banana
By Arkady Gershteyn

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.  – Franz Kafka

Well, well, well…
I crave the big banana.

I tell people about the banana, about the luxurious skin, about the ripe brown tip, the succulent tender fruit inside. I let them picture this banana, enthusiastically drum up the banana appeal.
Have the beating crescendo into a frenzied chanting.

Try to have them feel about the banana as I do – that this banana is THE banana.
This is the answer, the antidote, the mega-boom, the fountain of prosperity – the next big thing.

And look at the natives of some deserted island off the coast of Australia, some Tanzanian forgotten tribe. They jump about in their simple garments, hoping among kangaroos, and picking bananas, to roast upon the communal bonfire. They just grab the banana – they don’t have to explain anything, plug and play. Nothing to it.

But I live in a world totally imagined, completely constructed around the mythical banana.
The banana par excellence – the ultimate banana. The bonanza!

And as I depict this banana, as I view it from various angles, as I pinch its skin and poke its tip – it seems to emerge a reality. It seems to be more real than anything else. I can almost feel it, the smell is almost there, the little slices of banana that my parents fed me when there were no bananas is almost within reach…

I know the banana exists, do you want a piece?

Copyright © Arkady Gershteyn 2011