Mango Lips

Mango has been my favorite fruit since I can remember. Living here in Micronesia is the first time I have had a mango tree in my front yard, an at least 80 foot tall tree. Sounds of a baseball falling through broad green leaves followed by a slightly metallic thud of the fallen mango hitting the jagged metamorphic rocks in a plink, plank, plunk down the steep slope is great music to my ears. A game we’ve devised is called ‘mango hunting’. Picking up fallen fruit might not sound like much of a game or an exciting hunt, but when you are playing ‘duck and cover’ at the first sound of the mango falling and then dodging the ripe fruit that is gaining speed until it crashes, ideally not on our heads, is great excitement for the kids and me.

(Pictured is a woman selling sugar and kool-aid "pickled" papaya and mango.)

Needless to say, I have been eating at least two fresh mangos per day. Not the large, far-traveled, orange when ripened mangos we are used to seeing in U.S. supermarkets, but smaller and stringier dark green mangos with tougher skin and sweeter juice. Every time I eat one of these delectable, heavenly treats I can barely believe my good fortune with every slurping, scraping bite.

Apparently, I had too much of a good thing. At a pot luck I indulged in a glorious mango and within minutes, to my dismay, I developed an itchy burning sensation all around my mouth and chin, everywhere the mango juice has kissed my face. What is this? What is happening? Surely my sweet mango could not be the culprit. Maybe it was rolled in something terrible before it was served on a shining platter. Maybe this particular mango tree is infected or sprayed with chemicals. Maybe the mango was stung by a bee, the only allergy I’ve ever known. Maybe…

Spare yourself the Google search on mango allergies- it ain’t pretty, but it is pretty common and I have the symptoms to the letter. Currently my lips are swelled to twice their normal size. Not in a sexy Angelina Jolie kind of way, more like a collagen lip plumping injection gone horribly wrong. The symptoms of a mango allergy are the same as poison ivy with blistering, itching, burning, swelling and spreading. I am not allergic to poison ivy – I know, it hardly seemed fair until now as I basically have poison ivy reaction on my lips. I have to talk to people with these lips and ask that my kids take me seriously with these lips and want to kiss my husband with these lips. The allergy medication and hydrocortisone helped. I feel confident that raw honey, if I had some, would help. Coconut oil did not help!

There goes another mango now. That one sounded especially juicy. Sniff.

Farewell dear mango, it was lovely to know you. I will try to remember the nuance of your taste. As I try to remember I wonder, what if I didn’t touch the skin or touched it to my lips, but allowed it to be fed to me as a baby bird is fed. I remind myself that allergic reactions can get worse with subsequent exposures and as my plump and bumpy itchy lips would have me remember, it is all too soon to try again.

This is a picture of a hairy spider with a three inch body and four inch legs. I did not take a picture of my mango lips, but find this crazy spider living outside our back door to be equally as disturbing.