It is not merely because peanuts are cheap and taste good. They have truly noble qualities sufficient to make us pause and think. Our eyes then are opened to the many things that even a little peanut can teach us.
Peanuts, prostrate on the ground, seem small and weak. They cannot be the first to welcome the sun at its glorious rise. They do not appear heroic in a storm. Neither, in time of disaster, do they arouse in us a feeling of pity.
With darkish, hairy, plain leaves and yellowish plain flowers, peanuts do not charm at all. But they are strong and resilient; they have vitality. They can stand cold or heat, thirst or flood. Hail-storms cannot crush and insects cannot kill them. Be the land rich or barren, peanuts grow slowly and patiently, distributing their seeds widely. Peanuts are found on the beach, the slope of a hill, everywhere. This great adaptability to diverse and often adverse environments is found in peanuts, not in the more delicate and aristocratic plants.
Peanuts blossom surreptitiously and bear fruit secretly. Individually, the plants are not prolific, but each fruit has in it the possibility of a new and full life.
The earth abounds with ambitious plants. Willows, elms, trees of heaven, raspberries—their seeds dance before the wind and seem bent on making the whole earth their breeding ground. But probably not one out of a hundred such seeds can stay alive and grow. The chances of success are frequently in inverse ratio to the size of ambition.
Peanuts do as nature dictates, growing slowly and in measured steps. Frustration is therefore a stranger.
A variety of plants depend upon the wind or a member of the animal world as agent for seed-distribution. They must possess attractive colors and fragrance, and require light, dainty bodies with which to bait and adapt to their vessels of conveyance.
The peanut plant does not ask for foreign aid; its fruit grows deep in the earth. Peanut shells are of earthy color. Without any seductive hue or odor, a peanut stores the rich oil at the very center of its own being. The peanut is self-effacing and independent, like a perfect gentleman.
Among the many kinds of vine-like plants, tecoma grandiflora and wisteria are beautiful, grapes and watermelons full of charm; dodder and ipomoea sturdy and tough, but in the company of peanuts, something is missing in each.
Though plain in appearance and small in stature, the peanut is virile and magnificent.