This fruit requires no introduction, I think I am safe to say that almost every person in this world instantly will know what banana is, or else they will go bananas... "Going bananas" I have been wondering how does that expression come about. Banana or pisang in Malay is one of my favourite fruit, easily available at any time of the day, fresh, fried, and chips, whatever state it become, it still a banana. A wonderful fruit, and I remember an advertisement somewhere that it even been called "The world's perfect fruit", chiquita banana advertisement or something.

Pisang emas dibawa belayar,
Masak sebiji di dalam peti,
Hutang emas boleh dibayar,
Hutang budi di bawa mati.

The above mentioned phrases are called a Pantun, which is a poetry in a special form, originally Malaysian and have been adapted into many other languages such as French and English in which been called a Pantoum, instead. In this particular pantun, pisang is used as the pembayang or the 1st and 2nd rhyme.

If I were to translated it to english with the meaning and rhyme, quiet possibly it would become like this :

Golden bananas brought to sail ,
One of which ripen in a crate ,
Debt of gold, one can bail ,
Debt of good deeds, taken to the grave.

Well, though it is not perfect, the rhyming is there and I think the meaning is almost the same.

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