How to treat your beautiful local wood if you don’t want to use varnish ?If you want to keep it as natural as possible? Before I went to the Gambia, I asked my friend G. Brouwer in Groningen, Holland  for advice. He restores old interiors and exteriors and knows a lot about this specialized work. After discussing several options he advised me to try and find the local knowledge. It turns out there is a way to use palmoil, made from these palms and their red fruits and sheabutter made from karite-nuts to treat wood. (Yes, the same butter that is used for skin and beauty creams!) Gambian people just don’t use it much anymore, because varnish is more practical, as I learnt from two Gambian artists: Hassan and Tam. Their arts: wood carving and painting.