My brother Josep has always asserted that there are as many wines as there are people. And it is by travelling, becoming acquainted with producers, even interviewing them together with a psychologist, that he has been able form a connec- tion with those wines that surpasses intellectual knowledge, capturing their intan- gible essence, their intrapersonal and interpersonal substance. There is something behind a natural product, when it is lovingly tended and honoured by human hands, that transcends all understanding. Likewise, my contact with the cacao people – in the way that Josep speaks of his ‘wine people’ – has allowed me not only to open my perception to a new and rich spectrum of creative possibilities, but to a reconnection with the intangible dimension of what we eat.

Cacao is richly expressed in the course of silent communication. Its slimy pulp produces ‘sounds’ like lychee, soursop and custard apple, even dairy. Its as- tringent, bitter and invigorating seeds range in colour from purple to white. And when fermented, they give off notes of almost every variety of fruit: cherry, pas- sion fruit, banana, of wild, brined and pickled fruit, and of fresh and candied fruit. Once dried, the emerging notes are of black tea, tobacco and wood, like a veil of mature complexity waiting to be revealed.

You have to be brave to enter into the jungle. Atzumisare, welcome. Entering into chaos to bring order to an expression of beauty. The leader of the Arhuaco community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range of Colombia received us with these words: