The Story of Mister Leaf - November 2000

With winter comes bleakness. Cold and rainy days. Lack of sunshine. Life seems to pause. People stay in their homes, hibernating, and even the natural beauty of Mother Nature is hidden away for the duration. Where does all the colour go to? The vibrancy of spring and summer. The dazzling arrays of greens, reds, yellows and blues just vanish.

I have a story in my mind that involves the seasons and it is in cartoon form. I can't draw so I will lay down the words and hope that you can utilise your imaginations and draw it for yourselves in your minds eye. The story is about the life of a leaf.

Now the leaf I am talking about here was born in the spring of 2000, child of a mighty oak. Started out as a young bud gathered in the arms of its parent.

As spring progressed the bud slowly started to develop until the time came for it to emerge from it's bud and become a fully fledged leaf, all green and glorious.
The leaf was so happy to be in the world! It grew and it grew as summer progressed, holding on to the oak tree with it's pointed arms and soaking up the sun.

From its early days it earned its keep producing oxygen for us to breathe in and it was happy.
But summer started to turn into autumn and the weather changed.
More often than not the leaf found itself clinging to the branch for dear life as rain fell and fierce winds blew.
It also noticed that it was beginning to change colour. Green turned to gold and the leaf became worried.

Dave, as I shall call the leaf, began to hear talk of the 'Glorious Dance of Death, amongst his brothers and sisters and was becoming rather frightened.

Then one day the unthinkable happened.
Dave became detached from his tree and was blown a long distance away from the scene of his life.
He wondered what was to become of him.

Dave finally came to rest at the side of the road along with thousands of other leaves.
It was cold and he felt lonely despite the presence of the others.
Lonliness turned into despair until all of a sudden a car came racing along the road and a wonderful thing happened.

All of the leaves suddenly started to dance as the car passed.
They swirled and floated and swept along with all the majesty of a grand royal ball.
Dave couldn't help but join in the with the others and felt the sheer joy of release.

But after the car had gone the dance ended and Dave slowly floated to earth.
The euphoria disappeared as quickly as the car and Dave new that his time was nearly over.
His once fine, green skin was slowly decaying and he became very weary.

Shortly afterwards Dave passed away, as did his neighbours, and went to the great oak in the sky.

The End.

Vivid imagination can be a great blessing or the worst of curses.

If you have read the story carefully you will draw one of two conclusions from it.
There is a certain connection between the life of a leaf and the life of a human being although this was not my intention when I wrote the story in my mind.
I just happened to be looking at a tree that had a couple of leaves still hanging on for dear life despite the wind and rain.

But when read retrospectively I can see the parallels.
I have had my spring and summer and am currently in the late period of autumn, maybe even into the winter.
I now look forward to the last dance, the final fling shall we say.

But what if it doesn't come?
What if I do not end up on a roadside waiting for that car to come?

Perhaps I will be blown into a lonely corner somewhere, left alone to decompose as my winter finally ends.

Optimist or pessimist.
The life of a depressive.

STOP PRESS!
After reading the above story my good friend Neil Hudson sent in an alternative version which gave me food for thought. Click here to read 'The Mighty Oak'.