Actually in this country (Malaysia), we call Cassava Tapioca. In fact in all British colonies like India, Sri Landa, Malaysia and Singapore, they call it Tapioca instead of Cassava. The word tapioca came from native American. The original word is tipioca, the indian word for the processed products of Cassava. From there it became Tapioca. So Tapioca was originally the starch but then in the end they use it for the plant as well. But from Malaysia on … because of international interest in this crop … because different languages call it different name, so they decided to use only Cassava, so that everyone know. The French call it Manioc, the Spanish call it Mandioca, and then tapioca, and then in native word we call it Ubi Kayu, Indonesians call it Singkong, so different different words. So now they use Cassava so that everyone knows what they are talking about. But on top of that, there is also the scientific name, the botanical name Manihot Esculenta. Early on there is another name call Manihot Utilissima for the edible one and Manihot …. Ermm … can’t remember the other one already but they are used to distinguish between the bitter and poisonous type from the sweet and edible type. So this one is just the background, of where it (Tapioca) originates: it comes from South America around the Brazilian area and then it spreads to the other part of South America and Latin America but it can only be grown in Tropical tropic … cannot be grown in the tempered zone. But then from there because the Spanish and Portugese were the prominent conquerors of South America, the Spanish took it to their colonies like Philipines whereas Brazil took it to Tionghoa because Brazil belonged to Portugal (*Tionghoa refers to Chinese immigrants living in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and most of the SEA regions). It was transferred from there to Malaysia.