Lucky Nut
by Richard Varr
They float in from another continent, wet and muddled after weeks and months in the southern Caribbean Sea. Yet these dark round nuts, called djucu nuts, have found a home on Aruba and are now steeped in local tradition.
"People here say finding the nuts gives you luck," says Omaíra Toro, an Aruban vendor and artisan jeweler with a kiosk at The Village, across from the Radisson Resort. The hard brown and black djucu nuts (pronounced "hoo-joo-koo"), which fit in the palm of your hand, originate in Venezuela. Omaíra explains that the nuts float ashore in a hard, protective shell of sorts. "First, I peel off the covering and then clean and polish the nuts," she says. "I then drill a little hole in the middle and string them together." She creates necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other unique pieces, often augmented with macramé and filigreed gold threads. "You can even find them in fine jewelry stores," she adds.
On Aruba, as well as on nearby Curaçao, djucu nuts are called "lucky stones". They get very warm when rubbed and are said to bring not only good luck, but good health as well. Arubans can be a very superstitious people and so it's no surprise that the nuts have made their way into island casinos. Many gamblers wear them as good luck charms on chains around their necks, while some have their djucus set in gold with their initials engraved onto the precious metal.
The nuts grow on tall trees deep in Venezuela's jungles and then float down waterways and into the Caribbean Sea. However, recently built hydroelectric dams on the country's rivers may be trapping the nuts inland. "We don't find as many of them anymore on Aruba," says Olinda Rasmijn, a local environmentalist and past president of the nature conservation group Stimaruba. So, if you happen to find a djucu nut on Aruba's sandy beaches or rocky northern shores, consider yourself doubly lucky! You might also decide that today's the day to try that luck at one of the island's many casinos.
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