Woowww, that is so cool. I live in Brazil and especially in the state I'm in (Bahia), they eat this all the time. The root, that is. The make flour from it too, and eat that with almost everything, lol. It's called 'Mandioca' here.
Didn't know how otherwise useful it could be though!
In North America, the yucca we have doesn’t have the big edible tuber root. It’s often confused with yuca, just one ‘c’, that grows in South America. Yuca is also sometimes known as cassava, and it has the big yummy tuber roots!