Sowing Roots: Morgan Joseph
Morgan Joseph was born in 1950 in a small fishing village overlooking the Caribbean Sea, called Canaries, in St Lucia. His parents Randolph and Gertrude Joseph had 7 children. His father was a farmer but life in the village in the 1950s was tough. In about 1954 his father left for the UK and found work in a Brillo factory in Park Royal. Conditions were poor and he contracted TB and was hospitalized. Years later he would return to St Lucia to live.
Morgan’s siblings followed his father to the UK one by one, with his mother and sister arriving in 1960. Morgan stayed on in St Lucia until 1961 with his eldest sister who was a teacher.
Once Morgan’s mother had left for the UK, Morgan had more freedom. He recalls he and his friend Patrick getting sardines from the fishermen and going out into the country to pick what food they could find (scrumping) before making a wood fire to cook their breakfast or dinner. His favourite food as a child was wild yam and flying fish as well as roasted breadfruit with cod fish.
Morgan remembers his journey to the UK vividly. He travelled by ship on a cruise which took in Trinidad and Venezuela. He and his sister visited sights in Caracas and on some occasions, Morgan got lost and was almost left behind in Trinidad. They arrived in Southampton in October 1961, and he can remember seeing his breath for the first time – the sensation of vapour coming from his mouth.
In the UK, the family settled in Paddington where they had a back garden in which Morgan’s mother planted potatoes and other vegetables. Back home in St Lucia, Morgan’s father had grown bananas, yams, grapefruit, oranges and other tropical fruit. He used to go to the country for the day taking fish and cook it along with the local produce he’d grown, bringing back warmed dasheen wrapped in dasheen leaves for the family’s evening meal. He used to farm in a particular place called Le Fèm (Creole) which was very fertile.
Morgan was trained in gardening when he was at school at the age of 15 or 16. In more recent years he has become involved in gardening projects in London at Loughborough Farm and back in St Lucia where he lives part of the year.
When he gardens in St Lucia, it’s a completely different experience from the UK. The terrain in St Lucia is not flat, the land is at 45 degrees. A cutlass (machete) is a necessity.
“so a cutlass it’s like you’re not going to the office without your laptop, you know, you’re not going to go into the rainforest without your cutlass, plus there’s killer snakes there.’’
The killer snake that Morgan refers to is the Fer de Lance which was introduced to the island by slave owners to deter those enslaved from escaping. A cutlass helps provide protection from snakes in the rainforest.
Morgan owned 60 acres of rainforest in St Lucia and initially worked five days a week on his land – on reforestation – and planted mahogany, teak and cedar tress – as well as subsistence gardening. He continues to replenish mahogany, teak and blue mahoe trees. More recently he planted fifty banana trees. They don’t grow very deep so get lifted in hurricanes or high winds, so need replenishing continuously.
“it’s just awesome, it really is awesome working the land. And it’s hard but it’s very rewarding, it’s very fulfilling, especially as I said, you cannot use any kind of machinery or anything like that. It’s just bare manual, your cutlass and your hands… it’s the most wonderful thing.’’
Morgan's collection of seed pods inside a calabash.
Another project involved planting about 1-2 thousand vetiver plants in an area of land in St Lucia where the soil is eroding. Vetiver stabilises the land due to the plant’s deep roots.
Morgan’s love and respect for nature, especially that of his native St Lucia, has led him to get involved in coral restoration and reforestation. He’s worked with a partner and the local community from his village to get funding for conservation projects which tackle sustainability and create livelihoods for the village youth by offering training. It’s now an NGO called CCIF (Canaries Community Improvement Foundation) with a Facebook page documenting the project.
Morgan’s fishing village community of Canaries and another, Anse La Raye, are the poorest communities in St Lucia. The majority of the people from St Lucia that migrated to the UK – the Windrush generation – were from the poorer villages and many people sold their land in order to fund their trips.
Morgan associates the breadfruit tree with his heritage as well as the banana tree. Breadfruit is a staple, and one tree can feed a lot of people. In St Lucia, Creole Day is celebrated annually, and everyone prepares traditional food. One of the traditional dishes is breadfruit with roasted cod fish.
He has two avocado trees in his backyard in St Lucia – with his hammock hanging on – and would love to grow it in the UK. He can recall an avocado tree in Portobello Road that produced mature avocados but is has been cut down. He’s noticed a lot of tropical plants growing in London including banana trees (producing immature fruit), avocado trees and a grapefruit tree. The grapefruit tree in a front garden in London W9 became too large and was cut down.
‘’Where I used to live before, I had, let’s say, a conservatory and … it was west facing and I used to bring all kinds of plants; banana trees, it was like a jungle really, it was just beautiful.’’
Morgan holding a mahogany pod with a cashew nut seed.
Morgan grows houseplants in his London home including Tradescantia ‘’they’re just ubiquitous in the village, they grow by the cemetery … the sun sets on it and it looks out over the vast expanse of the Caribbean Sea.’’
Morgan finds gardening and planting spiritual and good for mental wellbeing especially since the pandemic.
“It just makes you feel very, very close to Mother Nature and it’s just so good for your wellbeing basically.’’ When he first went back to St Lucia, he’d put his hands in the soil to fee the texture.
Morgan brought some seedpods and a Tradescantia plant with him to give to the Garden Museum. One of the seedpods is that of the Flamboyant tree which in St Lucia is also called the music tree or cha-cha tree, because when there’s a carnival it’s used like a castanet. In Jamaica the same tree is known as the Royal Poinciana. Another seedpod is that of the mahogany tree. The seeds are dispersed by the wind a bit like sycamore. He also gave a piece of vetiver with some root attached. Vetiver has a multitude of uses from purifying water to preventing soil erosion as its roots grow to a depth of 10 feet. It’s grass–like leaves can be used for thatching, traditional craftwork to make mats, carpets, chairs. And it can also be distilled to make an essential oil and perfume.
Morgan at the Garden Museum in September with plants, seeds and plant material from St Lucia which he has donated. He is holding the Cha Cha seed pod.