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Photo of banana and other items from Latin America taken by the author

Get a good look at that banana in the above photo. Isn’t it beautiful? It’s mounted alongside a mask that I bought in Cost Rica; a zampoña (flute) that I got in Chile; and a gourd, also from my travels to Costa Rica. The banana that is posted alongside the other items in that picture came to me from Latin America too — the Chiquita® label says so — and the banana you’re eating right now most likely come from there too.

Take note of that company, it has a lot to do with the modern history of bananas. But I’ll get back to Chiquita® later.

Bananas are ancient

Bananas, it turns out, have been around for a long time. The first settlers in Papa New Guinea, in the western Pacific, are thought to have arrived as early as 5000 B.C., according to National Geographic. Not long after, these settlers started cultivating bananas. According to The History of the Banana, other nations in the Malay Archipelago — which include Indonesia and the Philippines — were planting bananas around the same time as the people of Papa New Guinea.

Even today, with bananas growing all over the world, scientists are greatly interested in bananas from…