Arcadian Spring 2023

The Ascension of Chocolate

ARCADIAN

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet .

- Aristotle, c. 330 BC

CONTENT

Hidden deep in the Rain Forest understory, the song of the Gods can be heard .This gift to man manifest by angels, as they fell to Planet Earth. Harboring qualities discernible by the minds of both children and warriors . For Jesus once said :

“unless you become like little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of God”

And today at the avant-garde of the pastoral renaissance we find ourselves looking back to its Amazonian origins, and forward to the inspiring art and science that surrounds this mysterious substance, and perhaps , if we listen closely (when we taste our next bite) a better appreciation of its true essence .

There are moments in our lives when we seem to see beyond the usual, become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness, of our greatest wisdom. At such moments, there is a song going on within us to which we listen… it is the desire to express these songs from within that motivates all masters of art.

- Robert Henri (1865 – 1929)

Andrea Collesano is born in Pontedera in November 1980. Obtained the artistic diploma in 2004, he graduated in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, with a thesis analysing the metamorphic and mythological figures in Bocklin painting, focusing in particular on the zoomorphic part. He lives and works since several years in Forte dei Marmi. The sea element, the nature and animals are its main source of inspiration. He shows particular attention for animal kingdom. His subject range from small miniatures representing small insects to large works where the main characters are wales and other mysterious creatures of the abyss. with black ink on the paper he prepares by himself, giving to the material a taste of ancient times and a feeling of melancholic serenity.

Stains and all the effect he obtained by the “invecchiatura”(lit. to make it older) often become the starting point to create his beasts. Inspiring by the ancient, to the lost and to the old symbolic and naturalistic engravings, he tries to recreate the World dwelling in his mind. In 2011 he tries one hand at sculpture in bronze, by transforming its animals in tridimensional figures. The dreamlike element that is present in his works mixes with the accuracy almost scientific and obsessive of the details. The symbol is repeated: keys, bicolour chess, horizons undefined and patches of architectural elements in the way of abandoned lighthouse. There is no trace of human presence just animals, such as suspended. Without time. As dreams.

For starters, China and India are learning to love chocolate, and demand in these massive markets might be growing at twice the global rate, putting pressure on production. Meanwhile, cacao farmers have to deal with a heavy disease burden.

Collectively, the various viruses and fungi that attack trees and their beans lead to production losses on the order of 30 to 35 percent each year, says Andrew Daymond at the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre in the U.K. Throw in climate change, and things get even more chaotic. Analyses by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia suggest that some regions of West Africa—the source of most of the world’s cocoa beans—are getting too hot to support cacao trees. If nothing changes, we can expect a decrease in production in coming decades, says Peter Läderach, senior climate change specialist at CIAT.

The cacao plant has both male and female reproductive organs on the same plant but it cannot self-fertilize and so is entirely dependent on the midge to do this. It’s one

of the many little known facts about flies and the benefits they bring us. Despite the efforts of the flies, few of the flowers go on to produce fruit; it’s a tricky business.

No fruit means no bars of Galaxy or Curly Wurlies. Add poor pollination rates to the cultivation of these plants and your success rates drop further. The fact is, the pollinating flies are tree lovers—they like damp and shady conditions and many of the species require aquatic, semi-aquatic or moist soil conditions for their larvae to develop in. On these cultivated farms, trees are removed to create more space for the cacao but this removes most of the shade as well. So now there is very little shade and very limited leaf litter, and so nowhere for either the adult flies or their offspring to live.

Cacao is of its own unique species, but it comes in many different varieties. Traditionally, cacao beans have been categorized into three types:

• Criollo

• Forastero

• Trinitario

However, in 2008, Juan Carlos Motamayor identified 10 genetic groups named by geographical location or traditional cultivar. Since, the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has slightly tweaked that list, coming up with a few different terms and adding one more variety to make for 11 total:

• Amelonado

• Boliviano

• Contamana

• Criollo

• Curaray

• Guiana

• Iquitos

• Marañon aka Parinari

• Nacional

• Nanay

• Purús

ORIGINS

OMNIA FERT AETAS inichiostro a china su carta anticata, 100 X 70 cm., 2017

[And the clouds] with heavy rains and a moderate conk giving rise to BlackBerry marmalade, nutty caramel, tinges of grapefruit, and the elegantly floral hints of cinnamon and clove embraced by figs and kissed of Mandarin Sunshine , hidden under soft currents of winter spices and butter cookies, its elegant fruit sweet, full of agave twang and a touch of vanilla, all hovering in a haze of smoky wood and honey.

“Endogenous cannabinoids, also called endocannabinoids, are molecules produced by your body. One of the first endocannabinoids discovered by scien ce is a molecule called anandamide, which is synthesized in areas of the brain that are important for memory, motivation, higher thought processes, movement control, and pleasure.

There’s also two other substances in chocolate that boost the effects of anandamide. Typically, anandamide produced in the body is rapidly broken down by the enzyme hydrolase. Chocolate contains two compounds (N-oleoyl ethanolamine and N-linoleoyl ethanolamine) that inhibit hydrolase activity and prolong the effects of anandamide.

Anandamide is responsible for the blissful state we experience from activities like yoga, meditation, and general recreation; it is the chemical basis for what we call “runner’s high.” Derived from the Sanskrit word ananda (“inner bliss”), it is often referred to as the “bliss molecule.”

In short…there’s a biochemical reason why dark chocolate makes you feel good.”

Stehanie Garr

Interestingly, anandamide has also been discovered in two food sources: cacao and black truffles. When consumed in the form of chocolate, anandamide interacts with the same endocannabinoid receptors that THC does.

NUTRITION & SCIENCE

“Chocolate has a history of human consumption tracing back to 400 AD and is rich in polyphenols such as catechins, anthocyanidins, and pro anthocyanidins. As chocolate and cocoa product consumption, along with interest in them as functional foods, increases worldwide, there is a need to systematically and critically appraise the available clinical evidence on their health effects.

A systematic search was conducted on electronic databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) using a search strategy and keywords.

Among the many health effects assessed on several outcomes (including skin, cardiovascular, anthropometric, cognitive, and quality of life), we found that compared to controls, chocolate or cocoa product consumption significantly improved lipid profiles (triglycerides), while the effects of chocolate on all other outcome parameters were not significantly different. IN conclusion, low-to-moderate-quality evidence with short duration of research (majority 4-6 weeks) showed no significant difference between the effects of chocolate and control groups on parameters related to skin, blood pressure, lipid profile, cognitive function, anthropometry, blood glucose, and quality of life regardless of form, dose, and duration among healthy individuals. It was generally well accepted by study subjects, with gastrointestinal disturbances and unpalatability being the most reported concerns.

High blood pressure is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, contributing to about 50% of cardiovascular events worldwide and 37% of cardiovascular-related deaths in Western populations. Epidemiological studies suggest that cocoa-rich products reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Flavanols found in cocoa have been shown to increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide which promotes vasodilation and therefore blood pressure reduction. Here we update previous meta-analyses on the effect of cocoa on blood pressure.”

STEPHANIE GARR

Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law.

- William James (1842-1910)

Raising one’s awareness to the tactile experiences of melting chocolate in the mouth, resembles the babbling of a brook at sunrise, or the languid pathways of bucolic silence, that drift through our bodies during heightened moments of interoceptive.

“Some normal people are sensitive to the beating of their own hearts. This heightened visceral sensitivity is termed interoceptive awareness. The auditory tones from a metronome provide the sounds used to test for this sensitivity. The subject is asked to make a subtle judgment are the sounds synchronous with the timing of your own silent heartbeats, or not? Source analysis techniques show that during such interoceptive awareness, resources in the subjects right insula are joined by those of the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex. Interoceptive awareness can be associated with psychological tendencies to experience emotions more intensely.”

James H. Austin M.D. Selfless Insight

ALBERO DEL DELLA FORTUNA inichiostro a china su carta anticata, 140 X 140 cm., 2015

AMONG ALL the convictions formed in my “common presence” during my responsible, peculiarly composed life, there is one unshakable conviction that people—whatever the degree of development of their understanding and whatever the form taken by the factors present in their individuality for engendering all kinds of ideals—always and everywhere on the Earth feel the imperative need, on beginning anything new, to pronounce aloud, or if not aloud at least mentally, that particular invocation understandable to even the most ignorant person, which has been formulated in different ways in different epochs, and in our day is expressed in the following words “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen.”

That is why I now also, in setting forth on this venture quite new for me, namely authorship, begin by pronouncing this invocation, and pronounce it not only aloud but even very distinctly and, as the ancient Toulousites used to say, with a “fully manifested intonation”—of course only to the extent permitted by data already formed in my whole presence and thoroughly rooted in it for such a manifestation, data, by the way, which are generally formed in man’s nature during his preparatory years, and which later, during his responsible life, determine the character and vivifyingness of such an intonation.

from now on everything in this new venture of mine will proceed, as is said, “like a pianola.”

In any case, this is the way I have begun, and how the rest will go I can only say, as the blind man put it, “we shall see.”

First and foremost, I shall place my hand, moreover the right one, which— although at the moment it is slightly injured due to an accident that recently befell me—is nevertheless really my own, and has never once failed me in all my life, on my heart, of course also my own—but on the constancy or inconstancy of this part of my whole I see no need to expatiate here—and frankly confess that I myself have not the slightest wish to write, but am constrained to do so by circumstances quite independent of me, though whether these circumstances arose accidentally or were created intentionally by extraneous forces I do not yet know I only know that these circumstances bid me write not just some trifle for reading oneself to sleep, but thick and weighty tomes.

However that may be, I begin . . .

But begin with what?

Oh, the devil! Will there indeed be repeated that strange and extreme. George

Gurdjieff Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson

Having begun thus, I can now be quite at ease and should even, according to contemporary notions of “religious morality,” be completely assured that

The Tree itself is a humble specimen , it does not tower like the Oak or sway majestically like the Sycamore , its oblique leaves seem oversized in proportion to its coalescing branches . These essential geometries allow for maximizing photosynthetic resources , since the Cocoa Tree sits in shady understory , among the mists and diffused sunlight of the heavens.

Of its fruit however there is another hidden story , an intermingling of magic and heavens influence - its star like flowers suggest origins of other worlds and breathe a fragrance from unknown terpenes respite resonance and fractal.

Gautama Buddha had received enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree , perhaps the Gingko Balboa. While it was Sir Isaac Newton who camped out under the canopies of Apple orchards contemplating the movement of the stars, and found the dripping branches singing songs from the The Laws of Gravity . God himself writes his poetry on the inside of trees , and our own lungs hang there, as nests for Barn Swallows and Red Tail Hawks to rest their egg and splendid perch.

And what of this fruit so bitter and poor to allow once touched Kings the anointed perpetuity of enlightenment and love ?

In Thomas De Hartmann’s Biopsychological estimation , the fluctuation of our own brain waves during the consumption of chocolate begets the edges of Theta where peace and tranquility reside .

The Amazonian Priests and Aztec Kings consulted Shamans who had nonlocal access to Electroencephalography (EEG) self-awareness , with no need for modern scientific equipment. They knew that the elongated sustained states of consciousness given by consuming large quantities of Chocolate water opened the door way to ones higher self.

It’s no wonder today that the Chocolatier herself knowing of this occult magic, wraps her bars of ecstasy within religious art and botanical spirituality . The infusion itself a culinary paradox , where tree and fruit meet the mouth of mind and the mantra of the soul of Man – The Food of The Gods.

How could Henri Nestle have know that his proximity to the diary cow , and imilks sublime properties of emulsification , would give way to such a vast expression of chocolates potential to reach so deeply into the divine cooridoors of humanity , echoing a path closer to God ?

Is it not like the nimbus around the Saints or the Halo above the Christ , of forth coming prelude to the subtle altered states reserved?

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day When the last fires will wave to me

And the silence will set out Tireless traveler

Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer Find myself in life as in a strange garment

Surprised at the earth

And the love of one woman

And the shamelessness of men

As today writing after three days of rain

Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease And bowing not knowing to what

W.S. Merwin , “For the Anniversary of My Death”

from The Second Four Books Of Poems

Copyright 1993 ©

ARCADIAN

The Art & Science of the Pastoral Renaissance

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