Sugar cane contains a lot of natural sugar inside its thick stem. To make sugar, the cane is cut, crushed, and the sweet juice is collected and heated until it crystallises into the white or brown sugar people use in cooking. Mauritius was once one of the world's biggest sugar exporters.
Today, Mauritius still grows sugar cane but uses much of it in new ways. Some is turned into rum, which is a drink made from fermented cane juice. Some is turned into molasses for cooking. The leftover dry cane fibre, called bagasse, is burned to make electricity - nothing is wasted.
The sugar cane fields also shaped the look of the whole island. Because cane grows best in warm, rainy conditions, farmers over the years cleared much of the original forest to plant it. Today, the landscape of Mauritius - those rolling green hills - is largely a sugar-cane landscape, which is why protecting places like Black River Gorges is so important.