The golden pod

Ten of us were on the cocoa farm – my parents, brothers and sisters, and two farmhands.  

This was deep in the forest village where we lived and cultivated all kinds of cash and food crops with other peasant tenants.

The cocoa trees and other tropical plants formed a canopy of branches and leaves above, creating a cool ambience suitable for growing the cash crop and refreshing hard-working farmers like my parents.

It was the cocoa harvesting season, and the ripened cocoa pods hung on the trees like pure gold, beckoning us to harvest them, and the scene was pleasant to look upon.

Cutting, clipping, and twisting the pods off the heavily fruited cocoa stems, we gathered the golden pods into baskets and heaped them where we later cracked them open for the precious beans.

Hard work

My father must have noticed that his 12-year-old son was exhausted, for I worked rather sluggishly. He flashed me an encouraging grin and said, “Do you see those cocoa pods? They may well buy your sandals for school next term; so work hard!”

I had heard that before. Time and time again, while working on the cocoa farms, our parents reminded us that cocoa was equivalent to cash and that it deserved every energy we exerted on cultivating it.

Earlier in the year, we cleared the weeds under the cocoa trees, sprayed insecticides on the leaves, pruned the overgrown branches, and waited for the pods to turn yellow, ready for harvesting.

After extracting the beans from the pods, we left them on the farm for a week to ferment; then carried them home and spread them on mats to dry under the sun.

The drying process included stirring them several times throughout the day and removing all particles. When the beans were crisp dry and brown, we bagged them, ready for weighing.

At the end of the season, the cocoa clerks came to the village, weighed the maxi bags of sun-dried brown beans, adjusted the weighing scale to the disadvantage of the farmers, and paid them peanuts!

Thus, everything cocoa was part of my growing years in the village.  But it was many years later that I got to drink cocoa beverages, eat the delicious chocolate, and learn of cocoa’s countless nutritional values.

Celebrating cocoa

Although I moved on in life from the golden pods, the value of cocoa never left me.  Therefore, I resolved that if ever I had the opportunity and the means, I would cultivate cocoa farms and plant a million trees!

But that is one desire that will not be fulfilled in the real sense of the word. Rather, I have found myself celebrating cocoa and its cultivation by featuring it in my writings over the years.

In fact, it should be every Ghanaian’s personal loss that Ghana has lost its enviable position as the world’s leading producer of cocoa. Perhaps, with our concerted efforts, we can regain what we have lost.

When humanity lost paradise in the Garden of Eden through disobedience of God’s divine instructions, we regained it via the Garden of Gethsemane through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, with our combined synergies, the good Lord being our helper, Ghana may yet regain our position as the world’s leading producer of cocoa!

So I may not plant a million cocoa trees in fulfilment of a desire, but through the timeless channel of literature, cocoa may yet find its rightful place in millions of hearts at home and abroad.

Golden pod contest

It came as a surprise to me when the organisers of the Ghana International Book Fair (GIBF) named me as the GIBF Personality for the Year 2024. To God alone belongs the glory and honour.

Since this humbling privilege is associated with my work and passion for writing and literature, I have chosen as my personality project a writing contest titled “The Golden Pod: an Anthology of Cocoa Stories.”

It is a writing competition that requires that contestants compose short literary works on cocoa, the leading cash crop that has placed Ghana on the world map and blessed many nations with its many benefits.

Writing contest

Writers will submit entries on everything about cocoa: nursing and cultivating the crop; tending it till growth and fruit-bearing; harvesting the golden pods and extracting the beans; drying and tending them.

Some contestants may want to concentrate on bagging, transporting and exporting the brown beans.

Manufacturing cocoa products; exploring the nutritional and health benefits; and the traditional and non-traditional uses of cocoa by-products would be captured in contestants’ entries.

In fact, I will look out for entries that explore the challenges facing the cocoa industry and suggestions for practical solutions.

Apparently, our goals and desires, whether fulfilled or not, can somehow filter into our lives and works, challenging us to positively exploit the opportunities that come our way.