Panama

This girl looks like she stepped into a pool of jagua dye up to her nose. In the twilight, as she walked home after a performance of traditional dance, her entire lower body disappeared into the shadowy background of thick forest. It was a perfect example of how the Embera in the past  effectively used body painting as camouflage for warfare.

Embera Puru, Darien, Panama.

© Jean-Philippe Soule 2001