Trópico de Cáncer

I remember the time I was driving through the tropic of cancer,

the frontier where biodiversity drops drastically.

Most of the food, medicine and materials in the world come from the tropics.

This imaginary line that hangs from the Equator.

Where life blooms. Where the empires have fed for centuries.

From the land and its people.

There wasn't really a big difference in the landscape.

I was in the desert.

But I felt how the wind changed as I kept driving up north.

Let's take for instance cinnamon.

A well known spice that had become really ingrained in northern cultures.

But only grows in the tropics.

Same as tea, cacao or vanilla. Even coffee.

How is it possible that these tropical countries are considered poor?

Where there are still plants that need to be named, categorized, studied.

Plants that could hold the cure to disease, the power to fill bellies, the wisdom to ease our minds.