I’ll try to capture some of the scents I experienced on the Fiji islands here in writing. It’s probably a sorry attempt.
Sun baked coconuts - there is a pile of coconuts, and a pile of opened ones right next to it. For some distance I’ve been able to smell the sweet scent of something until I found the opened coconuts.
Pile of Compost - scents change with the wind. Mango trees are abundant, the fruit more plentiful than anyone could pick. So they fall to the ground, some will be smashed, open, then they rot on the ground. Millions of bugs and flies have a feast.
Tropical Green - With another breath I inhale the green plants of the tropical rainforest. Damp, fresh, earthy. The scent comes from the big leaves - coconut, banana, and lots of others I don’t know the name to.
More fruit- this time open papayas on the ground
Ocean - on top of a mountain the air streams up from the ocean. Not very salty, but distinguishably oceanic.
Viti cuisine - Someone is cooking a nice meal for us - it’s a faint smell because most of it is kept sealed unerneath the suface of the ground. Chicken, lamb shank, crab, bread fruit is all buried underneath, cooking slowly on hot glowing stones. The chicken and lamp are kept in a basket hand woven from coconut leaves. Banana leaves seal the underground-oven and lots of earth covers it, creating a mound - almost a miniature volcano.
Frangibani - Probably Viti’s national flower. A beautiful, strong, soothing, fresh vapour of the white flower that many Vitian ladies wear behind their ear.
Mosquito spray - there is hardly a chance for us whites to survive without the great invention of insect repellent. This smell frequently fills the air.
