Cacao was money in Venezuela 🇻🇪

*To my ancestors, those who saw wealth in nature. The subtlety of exchanging Cacao seeds with each other as if it were money.* **Cacao = Money** In an abstraction of the history of money and the economic systems that have existed there is a range of forms and objects that functioned in the past as a method of exchange of goods.  This is the case of Cacao in Venezuela. Before the Spanish invasion in 1498 (Arrival to the South American continent today) the aborigines used Cacao Seeds as currency to exchange goods between populations. It was called by the locals of the Jirajara ethnic group. They also prepared beverages for various purposes, including cosmetic use, to cure diseases and especially for religious purposes.  Some of the ways to call this beautiful fruit were: Chiré, Tiboo and Espití. **Planting Cacao for a sustainable future** For some time I have been working on a personal project called @vida.verde in which I am Co-creator. Taking advantage of this rainy season I am with @cvnuitter (Creator of Vida Verde) planning the planting of an Agro forest or edible forest on a hillside located in our house.  The idea is simple but you have to be patient. Planting an Agro Forest where the main crops will be fruit trees is a slow road, but I am sure that in about 5 years we will see the results.  In the meantime we have obtained some Cacao fruits whose seeds are in the process of germination. We have about 100 seeds. The space we have available for this project can hold up to 300 trees. We plan to plant 50 trees and the rest of the seedlings once they are ready to plant we plan to plant them in surrounding areas as a way to contribute to our ecosystem outside our territory.   At the moment I am very excited working on this project, selecting the best grains and making this documentary series of the beginning of this great adventure. Our plan for the future is to have our own brand of artisan chocolate and to be able to market it locally in our grocery store.  We are looking for some cocoa fruits from 2 areas of Venezuela since they are the original ones. This species of cocoa is called trinitario and comes from Central America. It was introduced without previous knowledge by the Spaniards who imposed this species in order to commercialize the production to Europe. The problem is that the original cocoa is rare as well as being the most expensive in the world, bought by high-end chocolatiers who classify the Venezuelan cocoa as the rarest and most expensive in the world.  With only 25 tons per year, Cacao Chuao is the only one in Venezuela with certification of origin. The idea is to sow again in different areas of the country to increase its production, understanding that this crop despite being industrialized today the best way to do it is organically in forested areas, since the industrial does not have such a good flavor.    I hope you stay tuned to the following days to see the process of germination and subsequent planting of our first phase in the Agroforest. During the process I have extracted the Cacao seeds, I have selected 100 seeds and the rest I destined them to make chocolate and the shells of the fruit will serve to create organic matter in our terraces. In which at the moment we are planting different vegetables. But this will be for the next publication.   I leave you some graphics of how we visualize the brand of Chocolates to sell.   Thanks for coming this far 💚