The little gorilla who did not like bananas There was once a little gorilla who did not like bananas. How hard for a monkey to dislike bananas. His mother had tried everything: bananas flambé, bananas soufflé, stewed bananas, bananas en papillote, banana pies, banana turnovers, banana splits, banana sorbets... No results at all: the little gorilla refused to eat bananas. His mummy, desperate, decided to go and meet the sorcerer of the monkeys: the old Orang-Utan who lived in the very heart of the forest. The old Orang-Utan sorcerer asked that the young gorilla be brought to him when the moon is full. Helped by the young marmoset, his apprentice, he used all his secret powers all night long: dances, songs, paintings, decoctions. He called upon every monkeys’ gods and even the others. At dawn, exhausted, he made the little gorilla’s parents come to him and told them: «Bring your son to the big yellow rock in the middle of the Utabana river tomorrow. He must stay alone there for three days and three nights without food or drink. Then your son will be cured.» The little gorilla’s parents did what the sorcerer of the monkeys had told them. The young gorilla stayed alone for three days and three nights on the rock in the middle of the Utabana river. On morning of the fourth day, his parents came to bring their son home. The young gorilla, overjoyed, threw himself into his mother’s arms for a big hug. And when mummy gorilla handed him a bunch of bananas, he wolfed them all down.

Traduction : Albin Carrier Marie-Hélène Lafond – La Tête dans les mots © 1996