I encountered this scene a short drive from the city of Kurunegala in central Sri Lanka. My family and I were sitting in the van on our journey to Dambulla when we encountered men offloading piles of coconuts, while the ruggedly weathered man nimbly sheds husks off the drupes that surround him.
There was this cool nonchalant demeanor that this laborer possesses as he went coconut after coconut, splitting away the husks with a sharp blade fitted crudely atop a wooden stump. That blade looked really dangerous to me, and very out of place in such modern times. Alas Sri Lanka still has a pretty labor-intensive economy. As a major exporter of agricultural produce, particularly spice, such scenes are all too common place for locals. But for me a lifelong city dweller, it was such something worth documenting. When’s the next time I get to see a man splitting coconuts faster than flipping pratas. Yup it was that fast.
The man was particularly camera shy, but when he saw that my Mum is east Asian (Chinese), he quickly took out a dollar bill and asked for her to decipher its origin and value. His mates were hoping it was probably Japanese yen, but unfortunately it was a New Taiwan Dollar bill that was low in value and out of circulation.
Picture taken with the Nikon D800 and Nikkor AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8 IF-EDÂ (The must-use lens when covering events. I bought a used VR I version back then as a student as it was much cheaper than the then freshly released VR II copy).