The wind changed direction in an instant and suddenly we were all running for our lives on a sugar cane plantation in Bahia, Brazil . Controlled burning of the cane is routine, making for easier cutting, yet things can get out of control fast. Slaves from Senegal and Nigeria first came to Bahia around 1515 brought by the Portuguese to do exactly this job. To work on sugar plantations which preceded permanent Portuguese settlements .The sugar plantation workers now are paid minimally and live in what seem like slave quarters to me. We are all addicted to sugar and yet the price we pay in health and in history for this sweetest of plants is steep indeed. From my book Divided Soul ( Phaidon) on the diaspora of Iberia into the Americas. #sugar #brazil #bahia