Dominique talks about his vanilla with stars in his eyes. A “wonder”, she says, whose secret she likes to tell: pollinate only a few flowers per shoot, let the brooms mature in the shade for nearly nine months, then harvest them when they turn yellow. In Mayotte, its pods are recognized. At the end of November, they even received the prize for the best black vanilla in the archipelago from the prefect. It was a month and a half ago. It seems to be from a century ago.
Two weeks after the award ceremony, Cyclone Chido passed through Mayotte. The whole department was blown away. The farms did not hold up any more than the rest. This Thursday, January 16, the field of Dominique and his companion Wirdane, nestled at the end of a long dirt road in the center of Grande-Terre, is unrecognizable. Chido destroyed everything. Of the vanilla, only a few miraculous pods remain. The same goes for mango trees, papaya trees, avocado trees, coconut trees, banana trees… The few trees still standing are plucked.
“Normally, here, you have shade everywhere,” assures this retired teacher. At the start of the morning, it is already 30 degrees. There is no shelter under which to take refuge. “And yet, it’s already a little greener
