Old/new ideas about a description of large Wilson loops by an effective string theory are applied to calculations of meson
scattering amplitudes in QCD, utilizing Douglas' construction for the minimal surface. In a remarkable analogy with N=4 super Yang-Mills, the Regge kinematical regime of scattering amplitudes turns out to be dual to the area-law behavior of large Wilson loops. For small quark mass and/or large number of particles the amplitudes simplify to the Veneziano type.