Thanks for your efforts on the colorizing of this picture. The bananas had to be yellow - wouldn't have been as interesting if they were green!

For some reason I continued to Google NYC banana docks and came across this postcard.

Yellow is more fun, but bananas are definitely shipped green, even back then. I don't know if they were ripened with ethylene like they are today, but this bit from USDA.gov sounds interesting:

"The first use of natural ethylene in fruit ripening was described in the Bible. The prophet Amos was described as a "gasher and gatherer" of figs. Gashing figs was known to promote stress ethylene production mimicking the action of the wasps when they exit pollinated fruits, and this triggered ripening. Also in ancient times the Chinese placed weighted lids on growing bean sprouts to promote hypocotyl thickening and crispness (Abeles, 1992). Ethylene was used unknowingly to ripen bananas in both East Africa and Samoa by burying them in fire-warmed pits, thus using residual ethylene from the smoke of the fire as the ripening agent."

Sometimes it is all in the details.

I have to say that you are among the best on this site.

Well done!