Noland Johnson aims his kuipad, reaching the 20-foot pole made of sun-bleached saguaro cactus ribs that bends under its own weight. His target is also a saguaro, this one living and rising some two stories into the desert sky. He slides the sharp tip of the kuipad behind one of the cactus’s arms, which is crowned with bulbous fruit. Oval and plump, about twice the size of dates, these fruit cluster atop wavy saguaro arms and central columns. Many are pinkish or red: ripe. Others have split open like banana…
