Don Sando and Miguel are two veteran macheteros, masters of an ancient Afro-Colombian martial art, who set off on the trail of "shadow games", practically forgotten combat techniques, and in particular after the legendary art of the "Shadow Elastic", which allows those who master it to fight in absolute darkness. In their path, the two macheteros will come across scares, witches and other fantastic beings who will test the skill and cunning of the masters, on a journey that will reveal the extent to which that magical world of apparitions and disappearances is interspersed with the present moment, full of social conflicts and centuries-old political struggles.

In this short novel, woven by Juan Cárdenas from the oral accounts of the Cauca's own macheteros, the fire of the ancient tradition of novels such as The Golden Donkey of Apuleyo or Zadig de Voltaire burns, where narrative sophistication is at the service of the pleasure that popular tales produce to us. Shadow Elastic is a tribute to the invincible dignity of the oppressed and a call to the need to resist a proud resistance in a country, and a continent, where even today the deep wounds opened by the White Man are felt.