Meaning
A starchy root crop — one of the island's oldest foods — ground and pressed to make bammy (the flat cassava flatbread) and used in puddings and cakes. A Taíno food that predates European arrival, cassava comes in a sweet kind, safe to boil and eat, and a bitter kind, which is poisonous until its juice is squeezed out and it is thoroughly processed. The careful old knowledge of preparing bitter cassava, handed down from the Taíno, is what makes it safe, and the plant remains a mainstay of the provision ground.
Examples
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Dem grate di cassava fi mek bammy.
They grate the cassava to make bammy.
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Cassava pudding sweet an heavy.
Cassava pudding is sweet and heavy.
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Cassava a one a di oldest food pon di island.
Cassava is one of the oldest foods on the island.
Origin
From the Taíno, the island's Indigenous people, who cultivated cassava (yuca) long before Columbus; the word comes via Spanish from Taíno.
How it’s used
The source of bammy; bitter cassava is toxic raw and must be processed. See [[bammy]].