Kapok Pillow

A kapok pillow is stuffed with fiber obtained from the seed pods of the tropical tree known by the scientific name ceiba pentandra. Colloquially it is known by various nicknames, such as java cotton or silk cotton. The tree is native to Central and South America, and some areas of West Africa. It has been successfully planted in the Pacific Island nations and even parts of Asia.

Kapok is considered a viable alternative to other fibrous stuffing and as such can be found in everything from toys to mattresses to a kapok pillow. Like many fibers, it is a labor intensive process to harvest and spin the seed pods into a usable product. It has been heavily cultivated in the rainforests of Asia as an alternative to cotton. One of the major advantages of kapok over cotton is sustainability, since the pods are simply harvested from a tree, rather than mowing down a field of cotton every year and re-growing it the next, the same kapok tree can be harvested year after year.

While cotton still dwarfs kapok as a global industry, the Asian surge in kapok production has made great gains in market share. The cheap labor available in even the best developed Asian economies by and large offsets the high labor cost associated with kapok, and import tariffs keep the cost of bringing in other materials high, leading to a remarkably affordable kapok pillow, given the labor that went into making it.