cocopalms

The morning sun was flaming above the walls of lava 1,000 feet in height which curve round the dark bay, the green deep water rolled shorewards in lazy undulations, canoes piled full of pineapples poised themselves on the swell, ancient cocopalms glassed themselves in still waters -- it was hot, silent, tropical.

The Hawaiian Archipelago 1867

The tide was in when the Ayesha Pilgrimage marched down an alley beside the Holiday Inn, whose windows were full of the mistresses of film stars using their new Polaroid cameras, -- when the pilgrims felt the city's asphalt turn gritty and soften into sand, -- when they found themselves walking through a thick mulch of rotting coconuts abandoned cigarette packets pony turds non-degradable bottles fruit peelings jellyfish and paper, -- on to the mid-brown sand overhung by high leaning cocopalms and the balconies of luxury sea-view apartment blocks,

The Satanic Verses Rushdie, Salman 1967