Presenting our Mai'a koa wood earrings design. The Mai'a design is handcrafted from the finest reclaimed Hawaiian koa hardwood. The Hawaiian word Mai`a means banana or banana leaf. Hawaiian legend tells of a brother of Pele who brought the banana to the Hawaiian Island from the Tahitian Islands. Part of Polynesian superstition is the belief that it is a sign of bad luck to dream of bananas, to meet and mingle with someone who carries bananas, or to bring bananas along on a fishing trip. There are cultural folklores and references to a person's skin being like a ripe banana or a person being as beautiful as a young banana leaf. There are many folklores with regard to the banana plant as a person or sentient being. Mai`a is kinolau, the body form, of Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of healing.