Harvesting Licuala

 

I bumped into these young ladies as they were coming out of the forest outside of A. Luoi in Central Vietnam. Their beautiful rattan baskets are full of Licuala palm leaves that are used to weave those traditional Vietnamese conical hats. The hats are known locally as non la; so is this palm. [NOTE: They said, i.e. they told Dr. Ban, that they had walked about an hour into the forest to collect the leaves].