Baby Leaves

Looking north on Main Street in Pigeon, MI -- April 13, 2012

If the leaves that push out on trees in spring could be considered babies, then these few weeks in April are toddling times. Last week brought out soft green buds with overtones of red and yellow. Bright blue patches of sky shone through the lines of the limbs, but the ever changing bud-to-leaf process began to take over the air space in a tree's wingspan.

By this week leaves were unfurling and growing. Honest-to-goodness leaf structures flutter in the breezes. It's like the baby leaves are headed into toddlerhood. Colors are bright and sharp. Spring green and grass green could be their names, not forest or viridian.

Deeper and darker shades will come with May and June. Wind and rain, coupled with cycles of hot and cold, bring quick maturation -- almost like a fast track through grade school and right on into adulthood for the leaves on a tree.

For now, at the end of April, leaves have an infant delicateness, a newness that is spring.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler