48 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 





With cacao in the tropics, as with corn in England, 

 the gathering of the harvest is a delight to lovers of the 

 beautiful. It is a great charm of the cacao plantation 

 that the trees are so closely planted that nowhere 

 does the sunlight find between the foliage a space 

 larger than a man's hand. After the universal glare 

 outside, it seems dark under the cacao, although the 

 ground is bright with dappled sunshine. You hear a 

 noise of talking, of rustling leaves, and falling pods. 

 You come upon a band of coolies or negroes. 

 One near you carries a long bamboo as long as a 

 fishing rod with a knife at the end. With a lithe 

 movement he inserts it between the boughs, and, by 

 giving it a sharp jerk, neatly cuts the stalk of a pod, 

 which falls from the tree to the ground. Only the ripe 

 pods must be picked. To do this, not only must the 

 picker's aim be true, but he must also have a good eye 

 for colour. Whether the pods be red or green, as soon 

 as the colour begins to be tinted with yellow it is ripe 

 for picking. This change occurs first along the furrows 

 in the pod. Fewer unripe pods would be gathered if 

 only one kind of pod were grown on one plantation. 

 The confusion of kinds and colours which is often 

 found makes sound judgment very difficult. That the 

 men generally judge correctly the ripeness of pods 

 high in the trees is something to wonder at. The pickers 

 pass on, strewing the earth with ripe pods. They are 

 followed by the graceful, dark-skinned girls, who gather 

 one by one the fallen pods from the greenery, until 

 their baskets are full. Sometimes a basketful is too heavy 

 and the girl cannot comfortably lift it on to her head, 

 but when one of the men has helped her to place it 

 there, she carries it lightly enough. She trips through 

 the trees, her bracelets jingling, and tumbles the pods 

 on to the heap. Once one has seen a great heap of 

 cacao pods it glows in one's memory : anything 

 more rich, more daring in the way of colour one's 

 eye is unlikely to light on. The artist, seeking only 

 an aesthetic effect would be content with this for the 



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