Inspiration

From Green To What Color

By Connie Arnold

From Green to What Color

Plant a tree. Whether it’s done by a professional nurseryman or whether the wind helicopters a maple whirlybird from the tree burying it into the ground, the tree will come up the same way: a sprig with tiny green leaves. We all start out with the leaves on our trees ‘green’. Or a more appropriate definition is greenhorn: a person who is new or inexperienced; rookie; novice; amateur; wet behind the ears.

Our tender, baby leaves are chocked full of chemicals that keep us green, vibrant, and full of life. Youth is confident, hopeful, seeing no limitations; midlife may be renewal or revival; later life shows some tatters from experience.

Let’s see how our leaves look after the long days of summer. Fall will tell our stories. Limber leaves brilliantly light up our wooded areas. These leaves are a testament to nature’s reaction to the onslaught of colder nights, variants in the rainfall, and the diminishing ability to create their own food.

Some trees have leaves that stubbornly resist the opportunity to glow, to glimmer in the sun. They’ve gone through the same summer months and are experiencing the same clarion call to change, but their responses are different from their sister trees. Dark, brown leaves hang from brittle twigs, rattling in the night winds. Spooky, grouchy trees.

Let the leaves on our trees go out in a blaze of glory, putting awe in the world around us with unnatural beauty. Protect your trees from producing dark, dry, brittle leaves that speak of hopelessness. Let’s not be a grouchy tree.