Meaning
A starchy root vegetable — a 'ground provision' related to taro and dasheen — boiled in soups and stews for its soft, filling, faintly grey flesh. It is not the chocolate cocoa; here 'coco' is the tuber dug from the ground, a staple of country cooking cooked much like yam, and its broad young leaves are cooked as callaloo. Cheap, hearty, and always on the country table, coco is one of the mainstays of the provision ground, and 'coco head' names its main corm.
Examples
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Put di coco inna di Saturday soup.
Put the coco root in the Saturday soup.
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Wi dig up di coco from di ground.
We dug up the coco from the ground.
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One one coco full basket.
One coco at a time fills the basket.
The proverb about patience and steady effort.
Origin
From a West African and Caribbean name for the taro-family tuber; distinct from 'cocoa', the chocolate bean.
How it’s used
A staple 'ground provision' alongside yam, dasheen and sweet potato. The word appears in the well-known proverb about filling a basket little by little.