The cacao tree, an evergreen, grows in the tropics, where there is evenly distributed rainfall. This allows for a year-round growing season, and ripe cacao pods, the fruit of the tree, are found at all times. When ripe, a pod looks like an elongated acorn squash with a colorful outer skin of greens, oranges, browns, tans, yellows, and reds, is 6 to 10 inches long and 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The tree has large, shiny leaves, which start out red and then turn green. Five-petal blossoms, pink or white, grow on the trunk and main branches only. The tree is very delicate with shallow roots and fragile limbs that cannot support the weight of the fruit pods, which like the blossoms, grow only on the trunk and strong main forks of the trunk. Each pod contains almond-shaped cocoa beans, that are 1/2 to 1 and 1/4 inches long, up to 1/2 to 3/4 inches across, and 1/3 to 1/2 inches thick.