The coca leaf: From the ‘bush that kills’ to a color palette for art and fashion

It is time for the dye bath. Hot water is mixed with coca leaf flour in a metal basin. To obtain the desired color, components that modify the pH are added, such as vinegar, ash, bicarbonate, alum paste or iron. The exact quantities and possible mixtures have already been established in the experimental workshops to define the shades expected to be obtained on materials such as silk, felt, fique, pineapple fibre or cotton. Dyeing with coca leaves, either with the fresh plant or with its flour, allows artisans to obtain shades between yellow and green.

The dyeing session takes place in Sutatausa, a municipality in the central Colombian department of Cundinamarca, 45 miles from Bogotá. It is being done by a collective of artisans who are experts in spinning, led by Luz María Rodríguez. Every year, this group stars in Tejilarte, one of the most popular arts and crafts festivals in the region. “If God sent these plants and man has used them negatively, why not change the way of using them and make it truly beneficial for human beings, through the colorimetry that we can achieve,” explains Luz María while knitting, as if the two needles were an extension of her hands that she could not let go of.

The use of coca leaves as dye is an ancestral tradition practiced by the Aymara indigenous people in Peru and Bolivia, and today different rural communities in Colombia are rediscovering it. They are also promoting their legal trade thanks to the project ‘Tinta Dulce’, created by two designers from Bogotá after decades of the coca plant being stigmatized as la mata que mata (‘the bush that kills’). It is a phrase popularized in the country by an advertising campaign by the National Directorate of Narcotics to prevent the trafficking of coca, marijuana and poppy. Although this propaganda was taken off the air by order of the Supreme Court of Justice in 2010, the phrase crept into the collective imagination, where it remains 15 years later.

Encouraging a legal market

Surely because of that collective take on the coca plant, when Mónica Suárez, a textile designer, and Daniela Rubio, an editorial designer, arrived in Cauca, a region in southwestern Colombia, to teach workshops on dyeing with natural plants, they encountered a mixture of discomfort and embarrassment. The creators of Ginger Blonde, a design and visual communication studio, were leading a session with coca leaves. By 2023, Cauca had more than 30,000 hectares of crops devoted to an illicit use, according to monitoring by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Ministry of Justice and Law.

The designers’ work was part of the ‘Territories of Opportunity’ project in 2021, which won a competition from USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. That experience outlined the ambitious purpose of ‘Tinta Dulce,’ which was created during the Covid pandemic to open up a market around products dyed with coca leaves. Through experimental workshops in places in the center of the country such as Sutatausa and in municipalities in the department of Boyacá, they try to get local communities to include it in their catalog of natural dyes. In addition, they are encouraging demand in cities, both for crafts and textiles, screen printing and watercolors.

The designers have held workshops at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama (MAC), participated in the initiative ‘Coca, word, world’ in New York, organized by the Open Society Foundations, and in December they held an event in Bogotá to familiarize artists and citizens with this type of dye.

But the ultimate challenge is even greater. It is not just about opening up the market, but also about promoting change, since the United Nations classifies coca leaves as narcotics, which limits their use for alternative purposes. The current Colombian government has promoted different scenarios for debate to open up spaces for productive uses within the law, based on the implementation of the Peace Agreement. The most recent is the official request by Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia this Sunday in Vienna, at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Mónica and Daniela have been present at events such as the Annual Convention of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). But, convinced that their movement is closer to the communities than to the political debates, they are focused on promoting a legal market for the activity.

‘Tinta Dulce’ supports communities with marketing, starting with the creation of a catalogue of products that is taken to different shops in the cities. “When tourists find out that the crafts are dyed with coca leaves, their eyes open wide. They find this narrative very interesting. They immediately ask me if I grow it myself, but I tell them that the supply is from a certified company,” says Luz María. Daniela explains that communities that include the pigment increase their income, because of the novelty it represents for the buyer.

“We have also spoken with coca growers’ cooperatives who have approached us to be our suppliers. Coca leaves are very interesting because their production is not seasonal, they are produced throughout the year and this favous availability for continuous production,” says Monica.

Manual for the use of coca dye

Manual de tintas is the publication that Daniela and Mónica will soon launch, as a practical guide for the use of coca dye in screen printing, watercolor and textile dyes. Each chapter, written by professionals in their field, includes a list of necessary materials and a set of step-by-step instructions for preparing each of the dyes.

And Pajarita, cuaderno para colores proposes a fun and educational experience for boys and girls, introducing them to coca ink through illustrations of birds. Printed with this ink, the coloring book will be available for download and will also be distributed free of charge in selected independent bookstores. “With these books, we invite artists, designers and the general public to discover the transformative potential of this ancient plant,” concludes Daniela Rubio.

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