Hawai‘i Wisdom — March 2016

Matisse

Aia ke ola i ka ihu o ka lio.

“Life is where the horse’s nose points.”

The scent of food leads one toward sustenance. Source: ‘Ōlelo of the Day (www.olelooftheday.tumbler.com)

Matisse, a blue-eyed Molokai horse, is seen here chewing the grass that grows around the base of mahogany tree trunks in Wai Koa Plantation in Kilauea. Weedwackers would hurt the precious trees’ trunks, so horses was the organic alternative to herbicides. A portion of the 500-acre Wai Koa Plantation property is home to the largest mahogany tree farm in the country. The trees were planted less than 10 years ago, replacing guava trees from the former Guava Kai Plantation.