NB: This painting can be secured now. It is on show in John Dyer’s ‘Spirit of the Harvest’ Exhibition at the Eden Project and will be shipped after 9 February 2026, or sooner on request.

In ‘Intercropping and Chopping, Costa Rica Bananas and Cacao Trees', John Dyer, Eden Project’s Artist in Residence and an official Artist for the Earth with Earth Day, paints the ingenious farming practice of intercropping in the Caribbean rainforest. Working en plein air in the heat and humidity of Costa Rica, the artist captures the moment farmers harvest both bananas and cacao, their machetes slicing through the dense, colourful growth.

Banana plants, the world’s largest herb, arch overhead, their vast fronds providing essential shade for the cacao trees beneath. Rich red pods cluster on the trunks, filled with the beans that will become chocolate, while heavy green bunches of bananas swell above. Dyer’s expressive brushwork conveys the layered vitality of this rainforest garden: the great sweep of leaves, the rhythm of machete strokes, the vibrant interplay of light and colour.

This intercropping system sustains biodiversity while making clever use of land and light. Bananas provide a staple source of daily food and income, while cacao yields the treasured beans that are transformed into chocolate. Together, these crops are central to life in Central America, supporting families locally while feeding a global appetite.

Painted on location during one of Dyer’s global ethnobotanical expeditions, the work carries the immediacy of place — every brushstroke infused with the heat, atmosphere and soundscape of the Costa Rican rainforest.

For collectors, this painting is both a joyous celebration of food, travel and environment, and an important cultural record of the crops that connect rainforest communities to the wider world.

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The painting is featured in the book 'Painting the Colours of the World' by Kate Dinn.

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