'Ohai

The 'ohai is the most beautiful tree in Tonga, in my eyes. The leaves are light and ferny, and much smaller than they look. Leaves cover the branch, making each branch look like a big ferny mass, but you look closely, beyond the beautiful pursed lips of red blooms, and you see little leaves the size of my nub of a pinky-nail.
For years, I've been obsessed with the symbolic tree of life. Whether you relate it to religion or not, the life of a tree is absolutely breathtaking. How it supplements life to other things, how its expanse of mass reaches far beyond the soil and far beyond our reach to the sky. Trees are beautiful, colorful, fruitful in some cases.
But the 'ohai is beyond. I always felt in touch with Mother Willow from Pocahontas-- her wisdom and good-hearted humor; and the 'ohai's branches and leaves are similar to the willowy ones, but when the 'ohai sheds its starkingly contrasted Ireland-green and chili-pepper red, it becomes a stout, winding mass of slate, white, and mint-green of moss (if it's an old tree.)
In 'Eua, I read the complete set of Lord of the Rings, and always envisioned this beautiful 'ohai tree as the White Tree of Gondor--this symbol of fallen but soon-regained power and reinstatement of goodness.
And in LOTR, trees are powerful and active. They help the good guys, overthrow the bad guys, and are OLD! They're wise and talk ridiculously slow and like to be alone sometimes. They adorn themselves with organic, beautiful decorations, and are such a safe-haven.
Of course, my favorite 'ohai tree in 'Eua was old and beautiful, but also had laughing, taunting children in its every crevice, along with a rusty car engine dangling from its biggest branch as a school bell.
Most Tongans would consider the coconut tree as the most beautiful because there are 101 ways to use it; it's a staple of the Tongan culture--it provides food, drink, shelter, materials for mats and baskets and other handicrafts, therefore generating income.
The 'ohai isn't extremely useful, other than providing leaves and blooms for kahoa's (lei) but it's beautiful--whether its bare and grey or full of flowly, blooming branches. It's still life.