In my early years in Auroville, when I started farming, I had a very successful tapioca crop. My village neighbors would come and buy the tapioca for Rs. 2.50 per kilo. I started to understand how valuable tapioca was for them as a local food. They would eat it raw, make chips, make flour, and add it to curries and vegetable dishes.

The plant is propagated simply by cuttings and is very hardy. This knowledge I have learned has all been shared with me by village women. Their knowledge is like the myriad- shining mirrors on a Rajasthani dancer’s dress as we “develop” as a society; it seems to me we shine a little less, many mirrors seem to fall away, our food becomes rather linear, and we’ll lose connection with the land and changing seasons. We are very fortunate that in India, this knowledge is still alive, Let us thank the village women and the knowledge that they are the last custodians.