One day, many years ago, three boys were playing on the beach, when suddenly one of them noticed something movin in the water, he turned and looked, and then other boys did the same. Emerging from the water was a tall dark old african man. The boys stopped playing and immediately turned and stared. The old man was tall, broad shouldered and had an octopus coming down from his head. The old man walked out of the water and called out to the three boys.
"You boys, come here, I have something for you."
The three boys were intrigued, and ran over to the old man.
"What do you want old man" The tallest and oldest of the boys asked.
"I have something very special to give to you." The boys were excited as the man reached into his pocket. He pulled out three seeds.
"These three seeds are verrrry special boys, I want each of you to take one, plant it and in three months time, come back with your plant and I will show you why they are so special."
The boys were very thrilled to be given a task by such a mysterious man. They each grabbed a seed and ran home as fast as possible to plant it.
The first boy lived on a farm and he took his seed out into the fields and planted it with the rest of the crops and thought "this will be the perfect place, it will get plenty of water and sunlight, it will grow".
The second boy lived by a river and took his seed down by the river banks and planted it in a nice little spot where the water was slow. He thought "This will be the perfect place for my seed, it will have plenty of water and sunlight, it will grow.
The third boy was poor and lived in the Ghetto. He had no place to plant his seed except for an old bucket. He gathered up dirt and planted the seed there, putting it on the window of his bedroom.
The boys started taking care ignore their plants. After about a month the first boy who planted his seed on the farm started to get tired of taking care of the plant. He thought, "Why am I doing this? I could be off having fun, playing with my friends. Forget this plant." So he abandoned his plant and forgot about it. The other boys continued caring for their plant, but after two months the plant started emitting a funny odor. The second boy was not keen on this smell at all. He thought to himself "what is this plant that smells so bad? Who was that old man come out of the water... he probably just some crazy old coot! Forget this plant!" And the second little boy abandoned his plant.
The third little boy however continued to care for his plant. Even when his mother started to complain about the smell and even though he couldn't have been out having fun, he cared for his plant. On the third month he grabbed his plant and took it down to the beech. He sat down in the very spot they first spotted the old man and waited, and waited. Just as the sun was beginning to set and create its symphony of color the old man came walking out of the water the octopus still attached to his head. The boy stood up anxious to greet the old man.
"my son, you've done verrrry good, that is a verrry beautiful plant!" The old man said cheerfully. "Come Let us sit for awhile and enjoy the sunset."
The old man and the boy sat down. The boy didn't know what to say or do, so he sat patiently. The old man then reached over and plucked one of the plants sticky, stinky flowers off of it. He placed the flower between his two hands and blew on it and rubbed his hands together smashing the flower. He then reached over and picked off one of the leaves from the plant and sprinkled the crushed flower into the leaf. He rolled up the leaf with the flower inside then snapped his finger, producing a flame and lit one end of the leaf while the other end was in his mouth. The old man inhaled deeply three times and passed it to the boy sitting next to him. He instructed the boy to do the same, so the boy took one hit and immediately began reading cough.
The old man laughed "that is okay my son, that is okay! Now I want you to do the same thing but this time think of a prayer, and a stone you think of that prayer inhale the smoke deep into your lungs. Then as you release the smoke, release the prayer" so the boy did the same thing but this time first thought of a prayer, inhaled, and the exhaled the prayer. The boy did this three times and passed the spliff back to the old man. They continued the process until the spliff was gone and then they sat in silence and watched the sunset. Suddenly the boy felt a rush of euphoria wash over him. The sunset was in full swing now and he realized this was the first time he had really seen the sunset. He felt a closeness to god he had never experienced before.
Before the boy realized it, the old Mann had gathered up the plant and was walking back to the ocean. The boy was slow to react but when he noticed the old man was taking the plant he scurried to his feet and called out to the old man,
"Old man where are you going? Why are you taking my plant? if you take my plant how am I to share this with my friends and family!?" The boy was confused.
"My son, you have done very good, this is a beautiful plant! But I tell you this, this plant here it will grow." With that the old man returned to the ocean, his octopus trailing behind him. The boy couldn't help but feel sad and confused, and he wondered if the experience was even real. He decided not to tell anyone about the events of the night. About six months later, the boy was walking down the road when he smelled a very familiar smell, he kept walking and then he saw the plant, then he saw it again, and again. In fact he found himself in a whole field of the plant. He wondered what had happened?
What had happened was the first boy who planted his seed on the farm, his plant did get plenty of water and sunlight and continued to grow and became male. And the boy who planted his seed by the river, his plant continued to grow and became female. The two pollinated and the seed spread across the island and the boy was able to show everyone how truly special the plant was, and soon grew his hair much like the old man's like an octopus.