[Alas Babylon!]

The yuka has a hard skin. What was fun, was taking this hard skin, after peeling way the outer portion of the skin, we, as children, used to take those discarded peelings and cut them into funny teeth and wear them in our mouths. None of us dropped dead from that. We are still around.

That's because it ISN'T the same thing. Yucca growing in the USA is not the tropical cassava plant used to make manioc. The problem is that in Latin America cassava is also known as yucca. But the yucca in the USA is a spike-leaved plant related to the pineapple, where the cassava plant know as yucca in Tropical America is a leafy bush. Here's a picture of a cassava plant:

Cassava is a perennial woody shrub, grown as an annual.

And a picture of USA yucca plant:

I'm in Alabama, and I have a big mound of yucca growing in the front yard. Nice flowers, but I'm not going to eat any of it!

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Yes, the first foto is the plant that grows here. Thank you.

[CobaltBlue]

Yucca isn't yuca. Yuca, cassava, manioc, all are names for the same two plants, the bitter/poisonous one which they use to make tapioca, and the sweet/non-poisonous one which tastes a lot like a potato.

The yucca in your yard is a completely different plant.