Meaning
The giant silk-cotton (kapok) tree — the largest and most revered tree in Jamaica, with its huge buttressed trunk and spreading canopy, some hundreds of years old. Feared as much as revered: folk belief holds that duppies and spirits live in the cotton tree, so people are wary of cutting one, sleeping under it, or passing it at night, and rituals are done before it is ever felled.
Examples
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Duppy live inna di big cotton tree, dem seh.
Duppies live in the big cotton tree, they say.
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Nobody want fi cut dung di cotton tree.
Nobody wants to cut down the cotton tree.
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Di silk cotton tree older dan di village.
The silk-cotton tree is older than the village.
Origin
The silk-cotton/kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra); revered and feared as a home of spirits. See [[duppy]], [[cotton-tree-nebba-so-big]].
How it’s used
The giant silk-cotton tree; believed a home of duppies. See [[duppy]], [[cotton-tree-nebba-so-big]].