Question

What is most likely the author's intent by including all the detail about the appearance of the cacao tree?

Answer 1

Answer:

The author intended to create irony by emphasizing how such a simple tree produces such a popular product.

Explanation:

Yes, the above is the likely reason why the author included the cacao tree details in  his excerpt. To him, even though people tends to love the chocolate, they don't have an idea why the product is popular and from which tree is the raw material for its production is gotten. To him, putting those details helps his reader to know that, the popular product is actually produced by a simple tree which is unknown but called Cacao.