Near the end of my first day at La Chocolate Jungle, I asked Isaias about the people behind the cacao. In our conversation I called the place a collective. He agreed, then explained the different work that brought the beans from the trees to chocolate.

The hands behind the production

Isaias wanted visitors to know about the people who cared for the place, alongside its animals and ecosystem. He described harvesting, caring for the plants, opening and collecting the pods, fermentation and drying as parts of the process.

He placed particular importance on the harvesters because they needed to avoid damaging the trees’ flowers. His account made the chocolate feel less like the product of one person and more like the result of people doing different jobs carefully.

A tree connected with childhood

Earlier in the walk, Isaias spoke in Spanish about a large tree that he said was three hundred years old. That was the age he gave me, rather than an age established by a tree survey. He described its wood as useful for tools and utensils, and connected it with memories of playing there as a child.

He spoke of the tree as a mother, connecting that image with mother nature and Pachamama. He also demonstrated a sound made against it. I told him that I had felt it inside. The exchange carried his affection for the tree and the place.

What collective meant in our conversation

The term described the people and relationships behind the work. Our conversation did not establish a legal ownership structure, and his attachment to the land did not mean that no one owned it. Those would be different questions from the one I was asking.

What I could take from his answer was the value of noticing the harvesters, growers and people handling each stage. The finished chocolate did not show all that work by itself.

Give the people behind a product some attention

For me, the visit was a reason to ask more than who owns a business or what it sells. Who looks after the plants? Who does the harvesting? Who carries the next stage? Isaias gave those questions people and tasks to connect with.

I came away thinking about belonging as well as production. His account of the tree was personal, and his account of the cacao involved many hands. Both made me want to understand the place before reducing it to a product or a name.