J’cans convinced Jesus’ cross made from ‘bleeding’ physic nut tree

The arrival of Good Friday each year gives Davion Fairweather the opportunity to reconnect with his youthful days growing up in Orange River, St Mary.

Fairweather's fascination with Easter was not so much about bun and cheese or fried sprat, but rather the experience of chopping the physic nut tree at noon and watching it bleed.

"If yuh see the tree on a regular basis, you wouldn't even know seh a it, because it simple and it don't really grow big. But, any time it come on to Easter Friday, it bleed red," Fairweather said.

He recalled one of the trees in his community while he was growing up. He said that scores of persons converged at its location on Good Fridays, many of whom took turns to chop it so they could see it bleed.

"An old lady in the community use to have one a di tree and when it a bleed, her yard full up a people. Dat tree used to have the most chop on it. Mi would take a slice out of it too, just to see the blood. The old lady use to cuss, but she couldn't get us out the yard. It was amazing to see, as a child," he said.

"The tree end up dry up and dead now, probably because it get too much chop," Fairweather said.

Many Jamaicans say that the red sap that oozes from the tree has deep religious significance. In fact, it is widely believed that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was made from the physic nut tree, and that the reddish sap represents Jesus' blood. Scientists, however, said that the 'bleeding' occurs because of the pressure of sap within the tree.

Fairweather told THE WEEKEND STAR that, as a youngster, he believed the theory that the sap was linked to the Creation story. However, he has since questioned himself about whether it can stand up to scrutiny.

"When mi get bigger, mi start wonder if climate change have anything to do with it, but mi still a wonder why a just one day alone it bleed, because, if you cut the tree the day after [Good Friday], a di regular white stain you a guh see," Fairweather added.

Fellow Orange River resident Evelyn Phipps, meanwhile, is convinced that the red substance of the physic nut tree is linked to the Creation story.

"A lot of things we nah guh understand, but, as a Christian, mi know say the power of God real. Mi never born when Jesus was dying, so I don't know the exact month. But, because we observe it on that day, Father God show His might and power, so that's why the tree bleed on that day. Him want people to remember what Jesus went through. It is the same way a fig tree never bear fruit and never will," Phipps said.

Her reference to the fig tree not bearing fruits relates to a curse, which Jesus, according to his disciple Matthew, put on a fig tree when he said: "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."

For Phipps, the 'bleeding' of the physic nut tree is another example of God's awesome power.

And it appears many Jamaicans believe there is a definite link between the bleeding tree and the crucifixion of Christ. Patrick Thompson, another St Mary native, said, having witnessed 'blood' ooze from the tree on many Good Fridays, he has no doubt that Jesus was killed on a cross made from the physic nut tree.

"Mi never believe, but, when mi see di tree a bleed a whole heap a blood for myself, a dem time deh mi just have to believe. Scientists going to say something else, but mi know what me see," Thompson said.