Hawai‘i Wisdom — April 2018

Puka ma ka ‘āpua

“Escaped through the handle.”

Said of one who barely escapes. Luhia, who was part lizard and part human, used to go outside of the houses of his neighbors to see what they were eating. When he found out that they were about to have ʻoʻopu fish cooked in ti leaves, he would wait until the fish were ready to be eaten, then he would cry, “Escape through the handle, my brothers!” The place where the ti leaf bundle was tied up would break open, and out would scamper lizards instead of ʻoʻopu fish, to the terror of those who were about to eat. The lizards would then run back to the streams and become ʻoʻopu fish again.

Source: ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, by Mary Kawena Pukui

The gold dust day gecko is a diurnal species of gecko originally from Madagascar and the Comoros islands. In 1974, a University of Hawai‘i student released eight illegally smuggled geckos near the Manoa campus. Since then, this 5-inch gecko spread to other islands, including Kaua‘i. The gold dust day gecko, seen here at a hala tree at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, has a bright green body sporting red dots on its back, face and tail, and also blue eyeliners and gold speckles on its back and neck. Photo by Léo Azambuja