3 Lessons From Life On A Coffee Farm
‘Witness the essence of life, the practical, the simple’ he said
It was 5am, the sun hadn’t risen yet and the first cup of coffee was being poured on Finca San Luis, an awarded coffee farm deep in Colombia’s jungle covered hills. In this chilly kitchen, where plumes of billowing wood smoke were intertwining with orange lamp light, Omar Arango, Don of the farm, said:
‘Mira la esencia de la vida, lo sencillo, lo practico’
It means:
‘Witness the essence of life, the simple, the practical’ — Omar Arango
At this time of morning, amid the silence of all things human and quiet of all things wild his words made the chilled concrete walls resonate. They felt profound, filling the morning void of thought in my mind.
I looked around trying to capture what it was he was trying to show me. The essence of life? The simple? The practical?
All I saw were limbs of old coffee trees reincarnating into flame under a blackened iron griddle upon which sat shaped, wet, white corn dough gently toasting over rich smoke. I observed further and noticed the sound of crackling wood, felt the warmth radiating from the stove and absorbed the ombre of glowing oranges. Then my nose caught the sweet fragrance of coffee as I raised my cup to my lips. It was then I realised that what I am witnessing is the essence of life.
The essence of life
The branches of coffee trees we had recently harvested were aflame and radiating heat, awakening our bodies from the morning chill. In turn, the wet dough ground from the corn growing just behind was slowly turning into the very food that would fuel our day, our thoughts and ambitions.
It was being connected to the cycling of energy, the origin of our food, our fuel that represented the essence of life. I found in this moment there was a great sense of grounding and satisfaction too. It was also perhaps why drinking a cup of coffee that morning, on the farm it was produced felt almost spiritual.
Thus, I think it’s worth taking a pause every so often to experience this moment of connectivity. In our day to day lives, perhaps it could be as simple as biting into an apple we pick ourselves in summer or a trip to a cauliflower patch in winter. For me, it’d be a walk through a forest to collect herbs and rainwater to brew a wild tea.
The practical
I tried turning the dough balls but the flames pinched my fingers. I had to retract, I couldn’t do it. My hands were not used to this at all.
I tried again, this time with haste so the flames wouldn’t catch my fingers but the result was a squashed round of dough! The room filled with giggles. Giggles that at first embarrassed me until I realised that they were not mocking, rather they were a light hearted way to recognise my clumsiness so that I would try again. So try again I did, each time making progress, figuring out a new way until I was able.
The feeling of deliberate action and practice leading to real time progress was energising and encouraging. I felt a boost for the whole day and was keen to take on many other challenges.
For this reason I’ve now added some form of small practical achievement into my daily routine be it an incremental change in a calisthenics movement, progress with my current book, understanding new words in a foreign language or improving my chiffonading skills.
The simple
This one really had me stumped because there is is nothing simple, or easy to my mind about making bread or starting fires. These are skills that require practice, patience and focus not to ruin it all in a moment’s distraction.
At the same time there was an unexpected sense of space in my mind whilst flipping these flat breads, observing their colour change and development of fragrance. Perhaps this is the nature of simplicity Omar was referring to? The singularity of focus facilitated by the task. It reminded me of a type of mindfulness practice.
There were a couple of other mindfulness type practices I also enjoyed on the farm that I have taken back with me. Firstly, it’s listening to bird song. I adored this on Finca San Luis among the tall trees, a rare experience these days as farms are usually deforested. Sometimes we’d pause in the forest of coffee for a timed minute to really listen and guess how many types of bird we could hear.
The second is the process of tasting coffee as it cools. There is a charm to this as the flavours, fragrances and body of beautiful coffee changes as it cools. Focusing on this journey of flavours and textures is certainly an experience which brings one into the moment, creating mental space. Particularly if the coffee was made as it was on San Luis, delicate and floral, a little coffee grounds to a good amount of water.
All you need to know
- Being connected to the origin of our food, our fuel, even by simply eating an apple directly from a tree can be a grounding and satisfying experience.
- Practical achievements can give a boost throughout the day so set yourself a practical challenge however small daily. It can be anything from a new calisthenics movement to reading a set number of pages.
- Simplicity can create mental space. One way to approach this is by focusing on one thing for a minute daily be it bird song, flipping flat breads or paying attention to the flavours in a cup of coffee as it cools.
Finally
Here’s a YouTube video for more of this morning on Finca San Luis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHSNw3kjJgk
Thank you for reading,
Chetan
