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The office was quiet. Everybody had gone out to a meeting. That was the perfect moment to get to that report needing my uttermost attention, and due the end of that bleak Monday afternoon. The chaotic, never-stopping traffic of the streets of São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, could be heard in the background while a white cold light shimmered a couple stations away. I refilled my cup with coffee and, while that inebriating smell came into my nostrils, a quick look through the window washed my eyes with something no one would have expected: it wasn’t even 4 pm and the day turned to night. The forest was burning. The Amazon represents half of the rainforests that are still left in the world. Extremely biodiverse, there are still many things unknown that it can provide humanity with. Many of those forest’s secrets are its flavours, which got some attention the past few years thanks to the Brazilian chef Alex Atala - who got the world’s recognition on its own episode in the second season of Netflix’s Chef’s Table. He manages to use ingredients that are unique to the jungle and remodels them with the principles of molecular gastronomy, taking it to the main stage of international cuisine. Although the forest has most of its territory in Brazil, the 2,500 kilometers, or more, that separates it from my hometown kept me from seeing one of the biggest symbols of my country. I had tasted that delicious food a few months before, an experience I had never had: the numbing sensation of jambu and the sour taste of tucupi set a fire on my tongue, a long lasting feeling that would make me book my next vacations to the forest for the first time, going after the best of amazonian food. The jungle, however, was on fire. And with it, all those hidden secrets that most of the world didn’t get to taste yet. My country is to blame: the government has not been doing its job protecting the environment, cutting the budget of agencies that should be avoiding the increase of deforestation. That kind of attitude prompted warnings from specialists and criticism from different nations around the globe. And now we were seeing the consequences. A month had gone by, the fires ceased in its majority, but while sipping a delicious caipirinha made of bacuri inside the Tapajó river on the charming little village of Alter do Chão, I could still smell the smoke in the air depending on the direction the wind blew. That luscious green forest around me had survived this time, and so did its flavours. I got the unique chance of being there and still being able to taste at the source the flavour of fresh açaí, cupuaçu and many other fruits endemic only to the forest and impossible to find anywhere else in its natural state. The very distinct taste of duck made in tucupi sauce, a yellow juice extracted from wild manioc roots from the jungle, which can be toxic if not cooked properly, making the experience all the more exciting. The feeling of numbness on my mouth after eating tacacá stew full with jambu leaves that left me with a tingling sensation on the tongue that made the flavours all the more pronounced. As legendary amazonian singer, Dona Onete, would put it: my mouth got very crazy! All those diverse feelings that the ingredients found in the Amazon can provide are all due to the impressive biodiversity of this unique ecosystem that is being destroyed to a point of no return. Protecting it means also permitting that the culture of the people of the forest may survive, allowing more individuals to have those incredible experiences that now seem as a privilege of the few that can run for it while the forest still stands. There shouldn’t be space in the world for all those flavours going up in the air as smoke. Unless it is some crazy experiment in the kitchen of some star chef somewhere.