A Bright Green Leaf

Far away, on one of the great farms in the North, a maple tree stood on the top of a small hill. Now, this was a very fine tree. Its branches reached out like the arches of a cathedral. Its shade provided refreshment for all who came under them. Generations of birds had hatched and learned to fly in the safety of its upper reaches. Surely, there could have been no better tree in all that part of the country.

Every year, after a long, cold winter, the tree grew a fine set of fresh, green leaves. One year, a bright new leaf began to grow on one of the tree’s greatest branches. Very early on, this leaf began to distinguish itself from the other leaves on the tree. It grew much more quickly than some of the other leaves around it, each of its five points was perfectly symmetrical, and there was not a single spot or marking on its beautiful green color.

Of course, the leaf tried to be nice to all of the other leaves, even though he knew it was their entirely own faults they weren’t as good as he was. After all, they had all grown on the same tree, so if they were any different, it must have been something they’d done wrong, he thought. But, of course, it wouldn’t do him any good to be rude, anyways. Perhaps if he were nice, they would learn a thing or two from his good influence.

It probably didn’t help that the other leaves only encouraged him in these ideas. Any time he brought it up, they could only agree that he was certainly one of the brightest green leaves ever to live. Most of the other leaves on the tree secretly envied him, and they tried to do whatever they could to gain his approval.

The bright green leaf liked to talk to others who came to the tree as well. One day, a rabbit hopped underneath the shade of the tree for a moment.

“Little rabbit, look at me!” exclaimed the leaf. “See how bright my color is?”

The rabbit looked up in awe.

“My, you are the brightest green leaf I have ever seen!” she said.

The next day, a horse came walking under the tree to rest after a long day of work.

“Mr. Horse,” called out the leaf. “Look at me. See how much shade I cast?”

The horse looked up and said, “Yes, indeed. You must be a very fine leaf!”

The day after that, an old eagle landed on a branch near the leaf.

“Oh, eagle!” called out the leaf, “Don’t you think I’m the best leaf you’ve ever seen.”

The eagle didn’t reply.

This bothered the leaf at first, but he soon forgot, and time moved on. Spring turned to summer, and summer turned to fall, the most glorious season for all leaves!

The bright green leaf was one of the first to change color. First, he turned to a happy shade of yellow, then a flaming orange that was almost too bright to look at, and finally a deep shade of red. The leaf was very proud of his colors. Surely no leaf had ever rivaled his spectacular shades!

Then something terrible happened.

He turned to a dull shade of brown, and the next day he fell right off the tree in a gust of wind.

The leaf couldn’t bear his misfortune. “How could this have happened?” he sobbed, as the wind blew him in circles around the farm.

After a thoroughly terrible ride through the air, he came to rest for a moment near the rabbit’s hole.

“Oh, little rabbit,” he cried. “Look what has happened to me.”

The rabbit grew wide-eyed to see the once-bright leaf from the tree. “Oh, dear!” she exclaimed. “How unfortunate. I never would have thought something like that could happen to you!”

Then suddenly, he was gone with the next breath of wind.

A little later, the leaf was blown into the barn where the horse was stabled.

“Mr. Horse,” he called out. “Look at what has happened to me! What have I ever done to deserve this?”

The horse looked at him with pity and said, “I will always remember your lovely shade.”

Then the leaf was picked up again and blown off into the distance.

For days, he was blown around the surrounding country, never landing for more than a few minutes. Each day, he grew weaker and weaker and lost more of what little color he had left. Then, one day, he landed in a puddle on a little trail through the woods. He lay there mourning the loss of his short life. Then, he looked up and saw the eagle flying overhead.

“Oh, eagle!” he called out. “Look at me! Aren’t you shocked to see me now?”

The eagle flew down and landed on the ground near the leaf. He looked at him for a moment and sighed. “Oh, little leaf,” he said. “You never understood, did you?”

“Understood what?”

“Why, you’re a leaf! Of course you fell off your tree. That happens every year.”

“But didn’t you see what a wonderful leaf I was? Surely I didn’t deserve an end like this!”

“Of course I saw. But I recognized that you were beautiful not because of what you had done but because of the tree from which you grew. It was the tree which provided you with life, and it is the tree which has now taken that away. You were only a small part of its wonderous glory. If only you had known that, you would have praised the tree, not yourself.”

And with that, the eagle flapped its wings and flew away.

An illustrated version of this story is now available in hardcover here.