Bananas

In the Miguel Angel Asturias novel Strong Wind we are on a hill with the British manager of the banana plantation, somewhere in the Carribean.

"It did have, it did have it's epic hour; but what else can you expect now, it's nothing but cheap exploitation, the dreary exploitation of natural resources, of those individual lands we are looking down at!"
Mr. Pyle agreed with Carl Rose that there had been a moment of adventure, when the plantations were set up, when the machinery went into the jungle; but he could not accept it as a stupid exploitation now.
"The days of adventure were something else, weren't they,really, old John!" Carl Rose exclaimed; "there's a difference between the man who goes into the unknown to bring out beneficial natural resources and the one who follows him in the absurd routine of never getting beyond going along with what's been set up."

They then went off to drink and "do some bowling". Adventure, exploration, a risky undertaking, Manifest Destiny for an Empire of Men! The Great Epic...Jolly good, eh what!