DO NOT JUDGE a book by its cover is an old saying which remains true and is applicable to the men who sell sugar cane on the side of the roads.
This week, Street Beat spoke to them about what they are doing and why, and whether sales were as sweet as what they were selling.
For Fabian King, this is not the case. He and some friends sell along Hothersal Turning but despite a few regulars, business is only sporadic.
“Nuff people passing but we only selling now and then. Business usually picks up around evening time but I have my regulars,” he said adding that was his fifth week on the beat, King said they cut, peeled, washed and bagged the cane on their own in order to earn something for their families and to keep themselves out of mischief.
“Rent have to pay so we out here earning a li’l bread for the table because I don’t want to break in anybody house,” he said.
In Haggatt Hall, another enterprising young man who declined to give his name and be photographed, was also selling cane.
He said there was nothing illegal about what he was doing but admitted it was probably going to be his first and last time.
“Today is the first day I’m out; tings hard so I just trying a ting but I won’t do it again; it too hard and this sun too hot so I will do something else next time.
“It’s better than getting yourself in trouble,” he said.
The man said he too did all the work himself and sourced the cane from a friend.
“I does get the cane from a friend who grows them and I peel and bag them myself. You have to know where you get it from to make sure it legal.
“People frighten to do this, it’s only because a man allow me that I am out here but otherwise, I’m not about this,” he said.
In the City, Marlon Babb teamed up with two other vendors to pool their resources and sell tamarinds, cashews, gooseberries, limes, fat pork, mangoes and, of course, sugar cane.
“Some days you sell fast, some days you sell slow. Today ain’t so bad, though the plums going faster,” he said.
Babb said he grew his crops himself although he also sourced the cane from a friend.
“I got a few acres of land and I also buy cane from a woman I know so I don’t got no problems,” he said.
On Swan Street, a man who identified himself only as “Donimous” was also selling.
While he admitted he owned no land to grow cane, he said there was more to the issue than a snap judgement could merit.
“Sales so-so because people don’t like to support their own. When a man with a past trying to get a li’l work and trying to support his children, people don’t understand and they say this and that,” he said.