The Beginning
The Beginning
The Beginning
I first heard of Claudio Corallo through a Zimbabwean journalist in the 1980s. While working together in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, she told the story of an ‘Italian Indiana Jones’ who was living and working in one of the most isolated parts of the Congolese jungle. Twenty-five years later, I met “the character” who had captured my imagination, and before long, we became business partners.
Of course, there’s the long story of Claudio and then the short one. Here is the short one.
‘Heart of Darkness’ is a novel by English writer Joseph Conrad of a trip deep into the African jungle. The story is about Marlow, an introverted sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, believed by many to be an idealistic man of great abilities. (Francis Coppola made a masterpiece film based on “that” character...)
There seems to be a strong parallel here with Claudio Corallo, an agricultural engineer, adventurer, idealistic man of passion, a master of tropical agronomy and a lover of nature, who in the 70s left Europe to go and live in Congo, then Zaire.
Fast forward forty years later, he's been known as the king of the African rainforest due to his ventures into the depths of the Congo River working with coffee, and now cultivating cacao and making chocolate in Principe.
There is no doubt in my mind, and in many others', that his chocolate isn’t just special. It’s borderline-mythical, the stuff of legends and fireside tales. The man himself is an enigma and his island compound—a secret fortress of ideas, creativity, and alchemy. The gift of this chocolate lies as much in its flavor as it does in the fable of its creation; a tale of distant lands, a mysterious foreigner, and an almost-impossible masterplan.
And here, I see Claudio traveling the same rivers described in Conrad's book. In modern terms, a Marlow searching for similar physical and spiritual ideals.
Thanks for your kind support,
Panos
I first heard of Claudio Corallo through a Zimbabwean journalist in the 1980s. While working together in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, she told the story of an ‘Italian Indiana Jones’ who was living and working in one of the most isolated parts of the Congolese jungle. Twenty-five years later, I met “the character” who had captured my imagination, and before long, we became business partners.
Of course, there’s the long story of Claudio and then the short one. Here is the short one.
‘Heart of Darkness’ is a novel by English writer Joseph Conrad of a trip deep into the African jungle. The story is about Marlow, an introverted sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, believed by many to be an idealistic man of great abilities. (Francis Coppola made a masterpiece film based on “that” character...)
There seems to be a strong parallel here with Claudio Corallo, an agricultural engineer, adventurer, idealistic man of passion, a master of tropical agronomy and a lover of nature, who in the 70s left Europe to go and live in Congo, then Zaire.
Fast forward forty years later, he's been known as the king of the African rainforest due to his ventures into the depths of the Congo River working with coffee, and now cultivating cacao and making chocolate in Principe.
There is no doubt in my mind, and in many others', that his chocolate isn’t just special. It’s borderline-mythical, the stuff of legends and fireside tales. The man himself is an enigma and his island compound—a secret fortress of ideas, creativity, and alchemy. The gift of this chocolate lies as much in its flavor as it does in the fable of its creation; a tale of distant lands, a mysterious foreigner, and an almost-impossible masterplan.
And here, I see Claudio traveling the same rivers described in Conrad's book. In modern terms, a Marlow searching for similar physical and spiritual ideals.
Thanks for your kind support,
Panos
I first heard of Claudio Corallo through a Zimbabwean journalist in the 1980s. While working together in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, she told the story of an ‘Italian Indiana Jones’ who was living and working in one of the most isolated parts of the Congolese jungle. Twenty-five years later, I met “the character” who had captured my imagination, and before long, we became business partners.
Of course, there’s the long story of Claudio and then the short one. Here is the short one.
‘Heart of Darkness’ is a novel by English writer Joseph Conrad of a trip deep into the African jungle. The story is about Marlow, an introverted sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, believed by many to be an idealistic man of great abilities. (Francis Coppola made a masterpiece film based on “that” character...)
There seems to be a strong parallel here with Claudio Corallo, an agricultural engineer, adventurer, idealistic man of passion, a master of tropical agronomy and a lover of nature, who in the 70s left Europe to go and live in Congo, then Zaire.
Fast forward forty years later, he's been known as the king of the African rainforest due to his ventures into the depths of the Congo River working with coffee, and now cultivating cacao and making chocolate in Principe.
There is no doubt in my mind, and in many others', that his chocolate isn’t just special. It’s borderline-mythical, the stuff of legends and fireside tales. The man himself is an enigma and his island compound—a secret fortress of ideas, creativity, and alchemy. The gift of this chocolate lies as much in its flavor as it does in the fable of its creation; a tale of distant lands, a mysterious foreigner, and an almost-impossible masterplan.
And here, I see Claudio traveling the same rivers described in Conrad's book. In modern terms, a Marlow searching for similar physical and spiritual ideals.
Thanks for your kind support,
Panos
