The Casuarina Tree by W. Somerset Maugham. Short summary

5 seconds

The work is about the casuarina tree. The author recalls the beliefs associated with it and compares it to the English people who lived on the Malaca Peninsula and Barneo.

1 minute

According to one belief, if you take a sprig of casuarina with you on a ship, there is bound to be a headwind at sea. It will keep the ship from sailing forward. Or a strong storm may break out at sea and all the passengers will die.

If at the full moon to stand over the shadow of a casuarina, you can hear voices that will tell a man his future. There is another story about this tree. When mangroves grow in the deltas of tropical rivers, the casuarina begins to grow nearby. It helps strengthen the soil and fertilizes it. After it fulfills its purpose, the casuarina dies, giving way to more fastidious plants.

The author wanted to name a collection of stories about Englishmen who lived on the Malacca Peninsula and Borneo after this tree. They came here immediately after the pioneers who discovered the land. But now that the country is peaceful, they are also doomed, like the casuarina, to give way to another generation, more whimsical but devoid of valor.