It took two months and involved a trip to England, but I finally got some photos back, real ones, from my trip to Ghana. In no particular order, photos of all things cocoa:


Our friend Elias, the village recorder, walking to work in the forest, stool in hand. Early morning.


A cocoa pod, the raw deal.




Members of the cooperative split pods deep in the forest. Elias is the only one with his own stool, the other sit on segments of palm trunk. This is where I ate the most delicious banana of my life.


We walked kilometres into the bush to see a farm belonging to a 90 year old man who was still working his own land. This was one of the houses we saw on the way, and typical of the kind of architecture in these parts. At 6am, the light was magical.


In the village, cocoa beans are laid out to dry. They are turned throughout the day, and covered up with palm leaves by night, for 8 days.




They rustle, dry, under the fingertips.


The cooperative cocoa truck comes to town.


Elias sits at his desk at dusk, a long day of weighing sacks and loading trucks, behind him.





Dinner is prepared on smoky fires, in smoky kitchens. One girl, fifteen, does all the manual house work.