
This theorem seems almost magical. The algebraic derivation doesn't really provide any insight into why it works.
So could someone give me a geometric interpretation of it?
This: Geometrical Interpretation of the Cauchy-Goursat Theorem? is a similar question but uses another, incorrect, definition of the theorem.
Let's take the path integral around the origin at radius 1, for convenience. On this circle, we have $1/z = \bar{z}$, the complex conjugate of $z$. If $f(z) = 1/z$ then $z \cdot f(z) = 1$ is real, and if $w$ is any complex number on the same ray from the origin as $z$, then $w \cdot f(z)$ is also real. So in particular any infinitesimal step along the radius $z \to z(1 + \mathrm{d}r)$, with $\mathrm{d}r$ real, would make a purely real contribution to an integral of $f(z)\mathrm{d}z$.
Similarly (because $f$ is a conformal map) any infinitesimal step around the circumference of of the unit circle makes a purely imaginary contribution to the integral. As z goes about the circle anticlockwise, $f(z) = \bar{z}$ goes clockwise at just the right speed to keep up and make the contribution constant. These imaginary parts add up over the length of the circumference to $2 \pi i$. (Note that the scaling at this radius is exactly 1).
Now let's take $f(z) = 1/z^n$ for some higher $n$. Now the argument of $f(z)$ rotates at a higher frequency as we go around the unit circle; instead of all the contributions being (positive) imaginary and adding up, they point evenly in all directions. Indeed we get $n-1$ contributions in each direction from zero. So all the contributions cancel out and the integral is zero.