As a child long ago, I loved fall leaves; loved how they looked on the sidewalk and how they carpeted the yards; loved how they whirled in the wind; loved their crunch underfoot. Loved their smell!
I loved them, but I also took them as an annual given.
Little did I know that I would one day come to live in a world where fallen leaves left on the sidewalks and yards would become a thing of the past — casualties of the “manicured landscaping” aesthetic. Or as I call it, BLAND-scaping, or land-SCRAPING.
An “aesthetic” that is turning the world sterile and ugly. An “aesthetic” that has people constantly expending labor and fossil fuels in a compulsive effort to “tidy up” the entire great outdoors as if it were their own living-room carpet! A “cleanup” compulsion that is dirtying our air and our waterways; destroying our peace and quiet; depriving us of curves and softness that would buffer the relentless hard straight-edges of asphalt and concrete; killing our leisure time; destroying the magic of the seasons.
Oh, and by the way, killing biodiversity and destroying the entire frickin’ biosphere. But, for purposes of this post, I’ll keep it simple and just stick with the beauty aspect.
Oh sure, we raked leaves back then. But we also always seemed to leave enough of them that sights like this were a defining visual of the fall season.
Today, in my seaside neighborhood in Daytona Beach, Florida, I came upon this magnificent sight. A SIDEWALK WITH FALL LEAVES LEFT IN PLACE!!!
WOW! I could not have been more surprised and delighted if I had encountered a carpet of rose-petals! I will never take the beauty of fallen leaves for granted again.
You can see photos by visiting the corresponding post on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page.
Photos 1 & 2: sidewalk in my neighborhood today when I was walking to the mini mart.
Photos 3 & 4: Micanopy Cemetery (Micanopy, FL), carpeted with fallen live-oak leaves. Feel the soft quiet beauty. (These photos I screenshot off of Google search results; these photos are by Ben Prepelka. I googled Ben Prepelka just now and found that he has a website where you can see more of his work and order prints. https://scenicusa.pixels.com )
Got a favorite fallen leaf story or image? Please share in the comments on the Facebook post if you like!