The legend of the Yuca (cassava)

There is an interesting legend about the yucas (cassava) noted by Franciso Izquierdo Rios and Jose Maria Arguedas in a book called “Canciones y Cuentas del Pueblo Quechua”,1949. 

It starts when the God Wiracocha, exhausted and hungry after a day of hunting went to the Yunga (Yunga is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest) to collect some yucas. The yuca at this time hung from branches. The plants failed to recognize the God as he was tired and his clothes were different, so when Wiracocha reached for the yucas the branches wilted denying him of their fruit. Angered, Wiracocha punished the plants as they had rebelled against him, the punishment meant that yucas will never be eaten in heaven again and that only man and animal will eat them only after destroying the plant. So the fruit of the yuca plant became its root and to this day the plant most be destroyed in order to obtain the yuca.

Translated by: GringoPeru