Planting cacau, planting hope
Projeto Cacau Mushuinu: planting love in the lungs of the world
Written by Márcia · 25 September 2026 · 4 minute read
Some journeys change the direction of a life. In 2024 I travelled to Aldeia Mushuinu, a Yawanawá village deep in the Brazilian Amazon. I arrived as a guest, with an open heart, ready to listen and to learn. I left with a promise, and with a love for this land and its people that I carry with me everywhere I go.
A cause close to my heart
During a ceremony in the village, a vision came to me, soft and very clear: this community has given so much to the world, and it was time for something to flow back to them. As a Brazilian woman living far from home, I felt it deep in my body. I could not simply go back to my life and forget.
That vision became Projeto Cacau Mushuinu. The first step was simple and sacred: bring Theobroma, the cacao tree, back into the forest, and plant it together with the people who have always protected that land. Theobroma means “food of the gods”. For me it is also medicine for the Earth, and a way of planting love in the lungs of the world.
Every ceremony becomes a tree
As a cacao ceremony facilitator, I hold cacao ceremonies around the world. Each time I pour cacao for a circle of people, I think of Mushuinu village, because the money I make goes to them. All of it goes to support the project.
I carry this project alone, with my own hands and my own heart. There is no big organisation behind it, only a promise I made in the forest, and the love of everyone who sits in circle with me. In this way, every ceremony, wherever it happens, sends something back to the place where cacao was born.
This is how the vision took root.
Planting by hand
Today more than 500 Theobroma trees are growing in Mushuinu. I planted them myself, kneeling in the warm earth beside my Yawanawá brothers and sisters, one seedling at a time.
Each tree begins as a tiny baby plant. Part of what the project gives is the seedlings themselves, bought and carried to the village with care. Then the real work begins: choosing the place, opening the soil, and placing each young tree with a prayer and an intention.
Reforestation asks for patience. A cacao tree needs years before it gives fruit. That is exactly why we plant now, with love, for the generations to come.
Tools and knowledge
Planting a tree is one day’s work. Keeping it alive is a skill. So I sent farming tools to the village, and an agronomist to teach the community how to cultivate Theobroma: how to clear around the young trees, protect them, and help them grow strong.
My wish was never to do things for the community, but with them. When the knowledge and the tools are in their hands, the cacao groves become truly theirs.
A ceremony for the women
The Yawanawá women are used to holding space for others. I wanted to give something back to them, from one woman’s heart to another. I was the first to bring a cacao ceremony dedicated to the women of Mushuinu themselves: a moment for them to connect with Mother Cacau, embrace their feminine side, and open themselves to receive.
As the ceremony unfolded, the women sang their icaros, and the whole space changed. I will never forget their voices. It remains one of the most beautiful and humbling moments I have lived in this project.
For the children
The children of Mushuinu plant alongside us, with muddy hands and big smiles, and they are the reason this work looks so far ahead. Right now they have their lessons in the kitchen. One of my greatest dreams is to build them a real school, a place to learn that honours who they are.
My other dream is a cacao workshop in the village, with the machinery the community needs to produce and sell its own organic, locally grown cacao. Income that stays in Mushuinu, from a crop that also heals the forest.
Done, and still a dream
The project so far- 2024 · DoneA vision during a ceremony in the village
- DoneMore than 500 Theobroma trees, planted by hand
- DoneFarming tools, and an agronomist to teach
- DoneThe first cacao ceremony for the women
- a schoolStill a dreamA real school for the children
- a workshopStill a dreamA cacao workshop in the village
