Amaranth, which Jamaicans call "callalo" was brought from West Africa it is native to the region we now call Nigeria. Dasheen (colocasia esculenta) is native to the Pacific islands (Polynesia, Pau Pau new Guinea, Hawaii) and was introduced to the Caribbean islands long before East Indian indentured labour, it was one of the crops grown by enslaved Africans on the "Provision grounds". You rightly identified the plants as "Coco" as "cocoyam" is the west African name for dasheen. HOWEVER things get muddy because what we call "Tannia" (xanthasoma sagittifolium) in Trinidad & the Eastern Caribbean is ALSO called "cocoyam" in West Africa. To add to the confusion, he said the "Coco" was "malanga", but "Malanga" is the name used for dasheen in South East asia, while in Trinidad "malanga" refers to only a specific dark purple stemed variety of colocasia esculenta.
