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When starting a fresh painting, I have to study many sides of the plant to figure out how best to show off the flower & fruit!  With the Pouteria sapote/Mamey sapote, the flower is shown here to be the size of a fingernail!  It is also white-ish/light yellow so the backdrop of how I place the flower must be dark.  I will be enlarging the flower for the painting and placing it on the dark green background of the leaves.  I do not enjoy painting brown & greens so much (bark & leaves) and prefer to have most of the painting fruit & flowers and sky/backgrounds so this one will be quite a challenge!  The outside rind of the fruit is rather boring with its beige rough surface like a cantelope.  The work table I have this month is small and vertical so I dont have the option to have the paper vertical.  Regardless, this is the fruit I have chosen because it is a species of tree native to Mexico and I am here for only 2 months so would like to "honor" that time with this works.  I came upon this fruit for the first time last month in Mexico City and am always surprised when this happens for living in S.E. Asia and Hawaii, I feel I have been well-exposed to various fruits already!  

The fruit is an excellent source of Vit B6, C & E, and is a good source of riboflavin, niacin, manganese, potassium and fiber.  Research has identified several new cartenoids from the ripe fruit.  Carotenoids are beneficial antioxidants that can protect you from disease and enhance your immune system. Provitamin A carotenoids can be converted into vitamin A, which is essential for growth, immune system function, and eye health.