text: Legend tells of your ancestor, Modajo, who accidentally discovered chickens lay eggs and eggs will be delicious once fire is eventually invented so she became the first chicken subsistence farmer. Her neighbour Mike discovered likewise for cows, and for a while Modajo enjoyed her eggs and Mike enjoyed his milk since the concept of sharing was as foreign then as it is now. Watching Mike tending to his cows one day, Modajo realised cows aren't chickens therefore milk isn't egg and she caught the first ever case of curiosity. "Mike, has it occurred to you cows aren't chickens therefore milk isn't egg?" "Holy Cow!", Mike exclaimed, shocked by how he hadn't noticed this obvious fact until that moment. When he finally calmed down from bewilderment a full day later, Modajo continued. "I'll trade you a dozen eggs for a liter of milk." "What's dozen and liter?" "Random units of measurement I just made up." "I accept." And so the first barter took place, which continued each morning hence. A week later while out for a walk, Modajo happened upon a lady who had perfected the art of creating protective cocoons from leaves to wear on her feet while walking. She called them shoos for they shoo'd away painful foot blisters. Intrigued, Modajo made an offer. "Shoemaker, I’ll trade you 2 dozen eggs for a new pair of shoes." Shoemaker wasn’t impressed. "Firstly, there's something weird with how you're saying ‘shoo’ but I can't quite place it. Secondly, Papa had complications after eating eggs and I assume his condition runs in the family like our sensitive feet. We do enjoy milk though." Modajo foresaw the hassle of exchanging eggs for milk whenever she needed shoos - which would be every 2 days - so she gathered Mike, Shoemaker and several other locals for a meeting. "My People, we need something to represent the value of goods when said goods aren’t immediately available." They stared blankly at her as a cricket chirped away nearby. "This is Tito, a wholesaler," she continued, while pulling out a golden leaf. "He created these special leaves called money. One money is the equivalent of a half-dozen eggs. So Mike, a liter of milk is worth two money. And Shoemaker..." "Shoomaker," quipped Shoemaker. "Yes Shoemaker, a pair of your shoes is worth 4 money.” “Money is also the first noun in existence whose plural form is the same as its singular,” Tito added, much to the small crowd's amusement. Modajo continued explaining how she could, for example, exchange 6 dozen eggs for 12 golden leaves with Tito, spend 4 on shoes and have enough left over for two more pairs without ever involving Mike. Shoemaker could then exchange his leaves for goods of equal value with any other participant, notably Tito. The idea took off and soon the golden leaf became the standard unit of exchange. The town came to be known as Golden Leaf Village. Tito became the first wealthy person in existence. He had actually introduced himself to Modajo as a ‘hustler’ but she misheard him and he was too lazy to correct her. He stored the goods he acquired at a second home which became known as a 'store'. Unbeknownst to the others, he invented the golden leaf for nefarious reasons after discovering people like shiny things. “I’ll use this to trick people into giving me their possessions,” he thought while creating the leaves. “What’s theirs will be mine. All mine!" Hence he named the leaves ‘money’.