Our hosts Miguel Gonzalez and Maria Duarte with the rest of their companeros from la Cooperativa Agricola Rio Parana Limitada or Titrayju (spanish acronym for “land, work and justice”) as they prefer to be called, drove us in a two vehicle convoy to their yerba mate factory near the tiny remote village of Panambi east of Obera and a hop away from Brazil. It is a place you won’t find easily on a map but I saw the place signage so I know that’s the name of the place we visited.
When we arrived an almost centenarian European looking gentleman with ruddy face walked across the road to welcome us. He was accompanied by a younger person wearing a worker’s beret who could be his grandson or even great-grandson. He shook everybody’s hand and guffawed infectiously as I looked on and snapped away at the jaw-dropping view in front of us. The sun shone through the clouds giving clean soft lights to the trees and fields beyond. It was a picture perfect moment of taoist significance. Of longevity and laughter in a fecund landscape.
Kerk Boon Leng Photographs & Notes 