I ate a banana off a tree I happened upon while hiking in a small jungle in Tobago (north of Venezuela). It was awful, and a reminder how cultivation is such a fascinating science. (Yes, it definitely wasn't ripe, but I just wanted to try it because I'd never seen it before!)
Bananas are awful when not ripe. In temperate climates, most bananas are harvested before they are ripe before they are imported, and they taste so bad it took me a few years to get used to them. They're just grainy, hard, and tasteless compared to a banana that matured on a bunch (even if that bunch was cut from the tree).
Even the bananas that ripen on the plant (turned yellow and all) need some time after harvest to convert all the starch into sugar. They still taste a bit starchy right after the harvest.
