ghana is one of the worlds largest producers of, yes, CHOCOLATE. and my goddess, what could be more amazing than hiking through eighteen kilometers of chocolate forest?!! beans glistening on the trunks in all their rich expensive exportable glory. and i ate the fruit. the flesh of a cacao bean- it is pale and soft and almost tart, protecting the potent purple seed of perfection that is its desired product. mmmm. straight from the trunk and in the element of yum, sucking on the raw cacao and thinking about smuggling some seedlings back home in my already dirt-filled backpack.
from the chocolate forest i wondered into the jungle canopy, then from the tree tops to the rock shrine, from this solid altered ashanti altar to the forest stream where you can feel the flow of hippo feet and crocodile teeth, flowing further back to the ocean, building shrines of shells to honor ourselves and onward, to waterfalls and confusing cities and unfinished ecovillages and back to accra. there is electricity only sometimes, and i am lucky in this moment to be writing to you.
