In Discovery Park, the towering big leaf maples are still mostly mantled in green, but some leaves already let go of life, and have fallen to the ground.I pick these up, transfixed by their intricate veins, brilliant with chlorophyll, the surrounding leaf tissue dying in a yellow haze.
Glowing gold turns dusky, before crumbling and decaying into humus; home to worms and beetles and thousands of other life forms invisible to us in their dark netherworld.
The fallen leaf is an end and a beginning. Blessed are the big leaf maples.
These are the yummiest colors. For one thing, maple trees make maple syrup, which is as close to fairy food as you can get. For another thing, these colors say to me: life, and yes, chlorophyll, lemons, lime, sherbet ice cream, Italian Ice, tonic water and ice on a hot day, avocadoes. Mother Earth.
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