AUTUMN: BEAUTY BEFORE DEATH

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Photo by Cheryl Daytec)

Suddenly, the green leaves metamorphose into red or yellow or a combination of several colors. It sure is a delight watching the beautiful uprising of shades. The irony though is that the leaves looking more vibrant than they could ever be or we could ever hope them to be are gasping for their last breath, awaiting their fall.

I envy autumn leaves. We humans can only hope to be our most beautiful before we join the earth.


Let me share you a poem I wrote about autumn:

Beauty Before Death

Trees dance with colors like discotheque lights
through mists of white descending from the heavens
The light about to travel to another world hesitates,
begs for more time to kiss the vivid autumn shades
like a thirsty traveler who cannot drink enough from
the spring of sweet water in the heart of the desert
But it must go and its farewell walk alters the landscape
Into another dazzling form that holds my gaze
There is an orange fire in the sky, that seems to herald
A gaiety of every form blessed with magnificence
But tomorrow, the leaves cleaving to the proud twigs
Will tumble stupefied on expectant dull earth
Multihued petals will drop down on a pile of decay
In every corner frozen branches and twigs will cling
To the trunks like the near-dead rejecting the grave
Trees will stand like ghosts too unhappy to haunt

For now let me stay mesmerized by the sight before me
With Mont Le Blanc ahead and Lake Geneva behind
Let me forget that this soul-entrancing beauty
Is a flamboyant prelude to the colors’ sad demise.

AUTUMN: A RIOT OF COLORS

Montreaux (The Jazz City), Switzerland. The lake in the background is Lac Leman. (Photo by Cheryl Daytec)

At this time in my own Baguio City, Philippines, it is raining in the afternoons. No problem with that. At least, I get free water for my garden. In some parts of the world, people are enjoying a riot of colors in the surroundings while they shiver in the cold.

Autumn (or fall to the Americans) never happens in the Philippines which has only the wet and dry season. How do I best describe this magical moment? Perhaps sharing pictures of autumn will do the job best.

Zuerich, Switzerland (Photo by Fred Labfayong)
Geneva, Switzerland (Photo by Cheryl Daytec)

Santis, Appenzell, Switzerland (Photo by Cheryl Daytec)

AND THE GRASS STAND PROUD

I took these pictures outside the Cagayan Provincial Jail.