Tagua, the Vegetable Ivory

By Ewa KulakSt. John's University

2011

Colombia is a very beautiful country...

Colombia has the Amazon jungle...

La Guajira desert...

Caribean coast...

Three ranges of mountains...

A big savannah...

But, in my personal opinion, the most beautiful, Colombian region

is...

The rainforest on the Pacific coast...

The Colombian rainforest is a place where:

The whales (hampbacks) come to have their children...

The most poison frogs live...

It's a most humid place on the world...

It's the most biodiverse place in the world...

The people are pretty and happy...

And there, between thousands and thousands of trees...

We can find the most incredible and natural material for accesories and jewelry...

Tagua, the vegetal ivory...

What is tagua?

This is a 20 meters tall tagua palm /latin: Phytelephas/

It means Elephant plant...

The fruit of this palm is not a coco nut...

It's the tagua fruit...

Crowded with tagua nuts...

His kernel is covered by the brown skin...

It has 4-8 cm of diameter and it's like a small avocado...

The tagua nuts are white like the ivory, but they can be colored...

Tagua is used since the XVI century for: buttons, umbrella handles, combs, chess pieces, keyboards, knives...

But the most important point is...

Tagua saves elefants' lives...

The big fashion designers use tagua in their accesories collections.

So that...

Tagua has become an incredible product of great commercial value...

And an interesting gift for women who likes

ethnic and original accesories...

Thank you...