Funny man needs a hand creating tropical island feature (4,4)

I believe the answer is:

coco palm

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'tropical island feature' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.

'funny man needs a hand' is the wordplay.
'funny man needs' becomes 'coco' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a hand' becomes 'palm' (I've seen this before).
'coco'+'palm'='COCO-PALM'

'creating' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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