“The cacao comes from the Amazon.”
That’s what I heard from a little girl — maybe six years old — yesterday at Iskukua’s kids camp in Topanga, California.
In Brazil, I had never heard anyone say that.
We praise Belgian chocolate… and forget that cacao truly comes from the Amazon.
It moves me to see how Iskukua, who carries the Amazon in his veins, is here in California teaching children truths that are still invisible in his own homeland. Every time I return to the forest, agni awakens in me. And here, far from Brazil, I see Indigenous leaders like him being honored… while in Brazil, so few even realize this awakening is happening.
Thank you, Iskukua, for spreading the word and planting these seeds so young.
Because people are waking up. And we cannot wait.
Indigenous Amazon forests clean 340 million tons of carbon dioxide every year — the same as all the cars and factories in Italy.
But outside Indigenous lands, the forest is being sold off in pieces — cleared for cattle, releasing even more carbon.
Already, 17% of the Amazon is gone. If we lose too much more, it may never return.
And this is not just about Brazil.
Fires in the Amazon can turn New York skies orange.
The forest holds medicines that can heal the world.
And every breath we take is touched by the Amazon.
Iskukua reminds us: to save the forest is to protect everyone.
The Amazon does not belong to one country…
just like chocolate belongs to the whole world.
