When I walk in the fall, I collect leaves. I pick up “particularly fine specimens” and take them home. Sometimes I press them and use them as a centerpiece or in some other creative way. Often they simply add color to the kitchen table until they dry and curl up and I return them to the outdoors. (I wonder if anyone has ever seen a pile of my recycled “particularly fine specimens” and imagined a tree that dropped all these different kinds of leaves in one place.)
There is no single characteristic that makes a leaf a “particularly fine specimen”. They are not necessarily the perfect, unblemished leaves. Instead, they are the leaves that catch my eye and capture my attention for one reason or another.
One leaf would be unblemished except for a jagged one inch gash. The tear appears to be an old wound, inflicted while the leaf was still clinging to its branch. This leaf has a story to tell. I would like to listen to it tell me what happened. Was it attacked by a fierce wind, a bullying bird or a careless squirrel? Perhaps it would tell me how it endured, how it continued living until it turned from green to a dark burgundy and then floated to the ground where it called out to me, “Look at me! Listen to my story!”
Another leaf is tiny. Surely this leaf budded not long ago. Although it did not grow very much, it turned a lovely shade of yellow green. It called to me, “I am little, but I am doing my job as a leaf!” I added it to my collection for that day.
A close inspection of my “particularly fine specimens” reveals that none of the leaves are perfect. Each one sports some blemish, be it a tear, discolored spots or pieces missing. Some of the leaves have fallen to the ground before they had time to achieve their fall coloring, stripped from the tree branches by a strong wind or heavy rain. Each leaf has its own unique imperfections; some require a thorough examination to detect. Yet each of these leaves has called out to me, “Look at me! I am doing a fantastic job of being a leaf!”
Examining the leaves closely, I realize that every leaf is a “particularly fine specimen” with its own story to tell.
~Sally Hoelscher