The first arabica coffee plant to reach Europe was brought in 1616 by the Dutch VOC to the Amsterdam botanical garden. It was likely introduced to Colombia by Jesuits less than 200 years later. A new video by Guzmán draws parallels between Cachipay’s mist forest and the tropical plants commonplace to the Netherlands today. Using images and excerpts from his personal diary, Guzmán traces coffee’s lineage to propose a dialogue between the daily life of a Colombian coffee farmer and the commodity’s fraught colonial history.

*Text by: Amanda Sarrof