The yoco vine (Paullinia yoco) is a cleansing plant that provides good energy and a positive spirit for life. It is also a medicine that helps us to advance with more clarity through the processes of the sacred medicine, Yagé.
A vine of the upper Amazon
Yoco (Paullinia yoco) is a woody vine, or liana, that grows in the rainforests of the upper Amazon, where Colombia, Ecuador and Peru meet. Native to the Putumayo, its stems climb high into the canopy and can grow thick with age. Among the peoples of this region it is one of the most treasured plants of all. The ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes once described it as the most important non-food plant in the economy of the Indians of Colombia and Ecuador.
It is held in this regard by the Cofán and Inga peoples and their Amazonian neighbors, for whom yoco is woven into the rhythm of daily life.
How yoco is prepared
The medicine lives in the inner bark. The stem is cut into lengths and the bark and cortex are rasped, and these scrapings are pressed and squeezed into cold water. Yoco is always prepared with cold water, never hot, and the milky, light-colored liquid is drunk cool. What remains of the bark is returned to the forest.
The morning ritual
Yoco is traditionally taken before dawn, on an empty stomach, as the first act of the day. Naturally rich in caffeine, it awakens the body, lifts away sluggishness and quiets hunger, giving the clear energy needed for a long day of work or walking in the forest. But yoco is far more than a stimulant. It is shared. Families gather around it in the early hours, telling stories and setting the tone of the day together, and in this way the vine carries the community's memory, conviviality and identity from one generation to the next.
A plant to protect
As Amazonian territories have shrunk, wild yoco has become harder to find, and communities across the region are now cultivating and tending it so the tradition can continue. Caring for yoco is part of caring for the forest and the knowledge it holds, a responsibility ZiruYai shares in its commitment to conservation of the jungle and to the ancestral wisdom of yagé.