cacao-beans-4242
By Noah Jackson

The sweet pulp that covers the (raw) cacao beans are really yummy.

It’s really sweet, remarkably different from the cacao nuts I’ve taken to snacking on at night as I writeup field notes. The cacao fruit is really a forgotten commodity. I like the flesh to a very soft mango without the annoying fibers that get stuck between the teeth. After the cacao beans (or nuts?) have been fermented and sun dried they give a nice chocolaty taste when cracked open.

Noah Jackson is in West Africa working with African farmers.

Noah_Jackson_West_AfricaFrom the forest floor, a cacao farmer searches the mid-canopy of one of his avocado trees for a mid-day snack.
Like many farmers who live on small farms, these trees serve as important nutrient supplements.
Although avocado is not sold on the local market, cashews, oranges, papaya, plantain,
coffee and mangoes help provide a secondary income.


Noah_Jackson_West_Africa2Email from the back of the pickup truck; Avocados are close at hand.


Noah_Jackson_West_Africa3Community Interviews. It got a bit hectic here in one of the communities.
At one point crowds of kids showed up.
So we could have more of a focused conversation, I gave an extra camera to some kids.
It’s a technique I use often to refocus myself, the group I’m with,
and to move chaotic energy away from me so I can focus.
It works well. The images from the camera, like my community
photography workshops, are always unexpected.
This is a pretty good shot, made by young creative hands.

Noah_Jackson_West_Africa4Walking in one of the villages at the end of the day, one young girl waved me into her family compound. I made a series of images of her and her older siblings before I was directed to these scene just inside one of the houses.
I spent some time photographing this part of the day, the end of the day cleanup.
“Mother and Child, End of the day farm washup.”

Check Noah and his work at Forest Voices and be Noah’s friend on Facebook.
Cacao image taken from http://moragmcalpine.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/cacao-beans-4242.jpg
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Related Products:

Tagged with: • • • •

Filed under: General

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!