It is funny I don’t know how to explain this part of my life without sounding somehow, but if I’m being honest, everything started very ordinary and unserious way. It was just a normal day, nothing like celebration, nothing like heartbreak, crying or big emotional moment. It was just a normal afternoon, I was just felling unhappy, felling heat, the kind of heat that makes people quarrel for no reason. I had gone out to buy small snacks and water, something light to settle my stomach. I wasn’t even hungry like that — just tired. Tired from work, tired from people, tired from thinking too much.
I reached osisioma junction where women usually sells fruits. Normally, I don’t even look at there stall twice. I’m not the fruit type. I can go one full month without touching fruit and my body won’t even complain. But that day, for reasons I still don’t understand, my eyes fell on one single banana lying on the table. Not the full bunch — just one banana, resting gently beside a bottle of groundnut. It wasn’t too yellow or too green. Just normal. The kind of banana you wouldn’t notice on a normal day.
But I noticed it. I don't know why, I can't tell. Maybe I was just tired and my brain needed something simple to focus on. I picked the banana without thinking too much about it. The woman looked at me and asked, “Is that all you want?” I nodded and paid her. It felt strange, because I usually buy things without caring, but this banana felt like something I didn’t want to squeeze too hard or let fall. I carried it like it was fragile, I pampered it like an egg. You know that kind of feeling when a girl that you have been in love with for a very long time finally accept to be your woman, but this one is a little different this one is more like love at first sight.
When I got home, I put the banana out of the nylon and dropped the banana on my table and went to shower. I wasn’t thinking about the banana again. I ate my snack, drank my water, scrolled through my phone, checked my WhatsApp and Facebook messages, replied to the ones I could then went out to get some fresh air. It was later in the evening, I came back in when everywhere had calmed down, that I noticed the banana still sitting exactly the way I left it. I carried it and held it in my hand. it felt warm, like it had been waiting for me the whole day.
I smiled.
I didn’t know why. But that small smile was the first genuine smile I had made that day. The past few months had been filled with stress, pressure, and that kind of loneliness that feels difficult to tell people about. I had been moving around like someone carrying invisible weight on his back. But holding that banana made me feel peaceful. I know it sounds funny, it still sounds funny to me but it’s the truth.
Instead of eating the banana right away, I placed it gently on my table, like a decoration. Anytime I passed by the table, my eyes would land on it. It was like a small reminder that something in my day was right. Something simple, something gentle. I didn’t even understand why I didn’t eat it immediately, because normally banana is not something you keep for too long. But something in me wanted to keep it.
The next day, I woke up and the first thing I saw was the banana. And for some reason, it brightened my mood a little. Maybe I was going through more than I wanted to admit. Maybe it was just a period where everything felt heavy, and the banana was a tiny piece of softness in the middle of it.
I didn't eat the banana I carried it to work. because I didn’t want to leave it behind. I put it in my bag, arranged it well so it wouldn’t get bent or squeezed. Anytime I checked my bag for my pen or my headset, I would see it sitting there, calm and quiet, "e go sweet meeee"
People around me didn’t know anything. They wouldn’t have understood. How do you explain to someone that a banana is the only thing making your day feel happy and less stressful? How do you say, “This fruit is giving me joy” without sounding like you need a long therapy session?
But the truth is simple, the banana made me feel okay. It didn’t talk, but it kept me company in a way nobody around me was doing at that time.
Days passed. I didn’t eat it. It became like a small friend I carried around. Sometimes I would put my hand in my bag to check if it was still there. Sometimes during break, I would bring it out and look at it "how beautiful". People probably thought I wanted to eat it but changed my mind. Nobody asked questions. Everybody was too busy with their own problems.
Third day going to the 4th day this banana got spoiled, and when I wake up in the morning I looked at the banana is no longer shine the way it use to. I felt hart broken I went to work, my mood was not good when I got back I had to go to that junction. I looked around I saw bananas lots of dem, none of them cut my attention. but low & behold I saw one that look like it I bought it took it home, I said "you are welcome". There was something healing in that small connection. Something innocent.
I didn’t fall in love with the banana in a romantic, crazy way. It was the kind of love that sneaks in quietly, the kind that grows when your heart is tired and anything gentle feels like comfort. It wasn’t even about the fruit itself. It was about what it represented, peace, calm something soft in a time when life felt rough.
Maybe that’s how love starts sometimes not with fireworks, but with something ordinary that meets you at the right moment.
But like everything natural, time began to do its work. After some days, the banana started to change. The bright yellow started turning brown. Small spots appeared. I knew what that meant. Nature doesn’t wait for your emotions. A banana is a banana. It was meant to be eaten or to spoil.
I felt somehow, watching it change. this time I didn't go to buy another one because the change reminded me that nothing stays perfect forever. Even the small things we hold onto must go at some point. I kept it for as long as I could, until it was obvious I can no longer keep it anymore. But even then, I didn’t feel sad. I felt happy and good. Something so simple had given me peace during a stressful period.
And the funny thing is, afterwards, anytime I passing osisioma junction, I see myself checking the bananas. Not because I expect another special one, but because the memory has become something warm in my mind. A reminder that sometimes, the softest comfort comes from the simplest places. But this time "I dey finish the banana"
I know some people reading this story might laughat me that I fall in love with a banana. But anybody who has ever been lonely, tired, or emotionally drained will understand what it means to connect with something small when life feels too heavy. Love doesn’t always have to be loud or dramatic. Sometimes, love is just the way something makes you feel safe, calm, or understood even if that thing is a banana on your table.
I know you think I need a therapy now, you will be the one escorting me to this therapy everyday. 😂😂
@ecency