I saved articles, maps, and books of the island groups of Oceanica’s tropical regions – Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. I became fascinated with islands like Fiji, Rarotonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Tonga, Bora Bora, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Moorea, Yap, the Solomons, and the Marshall Islands.

The palm fringed beach was iconic for me, symbolizing an idyllic, paradisical, tropical, fantasy world. Like many armchair travelers on the cold nights of the temperate zones, I dreamed of creating a self-sufficient life where I lived in a natural state, living off the fruits in my personal Eden, much like Thor Heyerdahl dreamed and wrote about in his adventure, Fatu Hiva. Not nearly as ambitious, I settled for numerous visits to many isles of the West Indies in the 1980s. What I found was disappointing – the real life of natives working to survive. Many of the most beautiful islands, like Dominica, were incredibly poor, with per capita yearly incomes of $200 at the time. Heyerdahl was also disenchanted rather than enchanted with the reality of island life. He and I both learned that home is truly where the heart is, not ….

On December 17, 2009, in Manhattan Island, I wrote:

One of my favorite t-shirts was designed with a tropical motif, including palm trees blended with a New York City skyline. Below it were the words Manhattan Island. Perfect. I love the tropics, islands, and New York City. The shirt is long gone, but the spirit of Manhattan Island remains.

In recent years, however, I weary of the summer and the heat. I do not long for the tropical heat of the West Indies or of the South Pacific as I once did. But my love for the coconut palm remains. Here, however, on the other isles of New York City archipelago, I must settle for fake palm trees, like those in today’s photo on the manmade Water Taxi Beach on Governor’s Island. Like many other aspects of New York City life, enjoyment often takes imagination and, perhaps for some, lowers their expectations. The vistas are not like the magnificent mountains of Moorea, but instead the monoliths of Manhattan. The beach is not the naturally occurring white sand of the island atoll, but manmade. And palm trees do fringe the beach, but rather than grow and produce coconuts, they are Plastic 🙂

More islands and tropical plants, real or fake: North Brother Island, Bamboo Big as Pipe, Banana Too, Winter Garden