Every time I see papaya fruits on display in a shop I remember the time I spent in Lagunas, on the Maranon river. It was there that I acquired the habit of looking for a papaya plant after every meal. I would break off a leaf and eat some of it to aid the digestion and as a prophylactic, even if it was only a piece the size of a large coin. It may even be possible that my regular chewing of papaya leaves may have seen to it that the many kinds of parasites did not really bother me on my repeated travels in the tropics, even though I may have swallowed them with my food. True, I was always very careful, but even so, dangerous amoebas, hookworms, oxyurias, ascarids, whipworms and many other parasites, are rampant in the tropics and multiply rapidly, laying millions of eggs. There are some that draw blood from the intestinal linings; others cause inflammation, even abscesses and ulcers. They penetrate the liver and as a direct or indirect consequence thousands of victims die, often literally wasting away.
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