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In August 2021, John Plocher, Paul D. Goodman and I enjoyed a lovely vacation at Cielo Lodge in Golfito, Costa Rica during which we were delighted to visit the indigenous artisans of Boruca in their mountain village. We brought home two carvings to celebrate the 10th wedding anniversary of our daughter and son-in-law, Jessica Dickinson Goodman and Matthew Holmes. In a prior blog, I wrote about the Boruca carvings in balsa wood of nature, particularly jaguars (symbolizing male power and protection of the tribe) and butterflies (symbolizing female power and beauty). The symbolism of a butterfly and a jaguar to celebrate a wedding anniversary seemed right.
This is to consider another aspect of these carvings, the faces in the rainforest. In both the butterfly carving by Gabriel Leira (above) and the one by Markos Boruca (below), you can see a brown face with yellow, green, blue, white, and other colored lines highlighting the features. Our indigenous guide told us that these faces represent the Boruca people who are also part of the forest.
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