The leaves have left almost all the trees. They have gathered
on the ground in brown, crunchy heaps. I walk through the piles on the way to
class, looking down at the way they glide over my feet. I picked one up and
looked at it a little closer. After reading Diane Ackerman’s Why the Leaves
Change Color, I am able to consider the leaf more carefully. I look at the color
and try to imagine the brown tones hiding under the dominant green pigment of
chlorophyll during the spring and summer. I imagine it placed on the tree
soaking up the sun on hot sunny days. I imagine the tree in fall sucking in the
nutrients found in this small leaf, which will provide the tree enough food for
the winter. As I hold this leaf, I am reminded of the incredible and incomprehensible
complexity of biological systems.
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