Meaning
Banana — but in Jamaican kitchens the word often means the GREEN (unripe) banana boiled as a ground provision, a staple beside yam and dumpling, as much as the sweet ripe fruit. Green banana is savoury food; ripe banana is the snack fruit. The plant's dry leaves and stalk are 'banana trash', used as mulch and once as wrapping.
Examples
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Boil some green banana fi di breakfast.
Boil some green bananas for breakfast.
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Di banana ripe now, yuh can eat it.
The banana is ripe now; you can eat it.
Origin
Grown island-wide; green banana is a staple provision. See [[banana-trash]], [[ground-provision]].
How it’s used
Green banana = boiled provision (savoury); ripe banana = the fruit.