Mary Allen
Cassava is a plant whose roots are edible. Cassava originally comes from South America or Central America. In the meantime, it has spread and is also cultivated in Africa and Asia. There are other names for the plant and the fruit, such as cassava or yuca.
The manioc bush grows one and a half to five meters high. He has several elongated roots. Each of them is 3 to 15 centimeters thick and 15 centimeters to one meter long. So a single root can weigh ten kilograms.
The cassava roots are similar to potatoes on the inside. They contain a lot of water and a lot of starch. So they are good food. However, they are poisonous when raw. You have to peel the tubers first, grate them and soak them in water. Then you can press out the mass, let it dry and roast it in the oven. This creates a coarse flour that can be ground even finer. This cassava flour can be used in a very similar way to our wheat flour.
Around the year 1500, the European conquerors got to know cassava. They fed themselves and their slaves with it. The Portuguese and runaway slaves brought the cassava plant to Africa. From there, cassava spread to Asia.
In many African countries, cassava is the most important food today, especially among the poorer population. Some animals are also fed with it. The country that grows the most cassava in the whole world today is the African country of Nigeria.