The walk turned out to be quite interesting today

The leaf is young

She is watching the world around her

As the older leaves are changing colours

As the fruits turn ripe and fall to the ground

And she is wondering

What would be her fate in the bargain?

She looks around to the fellow leaves on the trees

And instinctively rejects them all

Too green, too yellow,

Too small, too big

Too dull, too shiny

Day by day

She looks around

She looks at the sun

Soaks up the sun and wonders

When will the day be over so that

She can experience the warmth of the morning sun

She asks where she has come from

What’s her baggage to deliver in this lifetime

She is searching

All the time searching

One day, a group of masons line up

Right under the base of the big family tree

And she sees the humans working with some grubby grey stuff

There is some excitement around her

At last!

She watches as they lay the grey stuff on the roads

And notices the marks left by them with their boots

Big patchy podgy bookmarks on the pavement

And then the humans work again to smoothen the surface

The process of making a mark made sense to the young leaf

She started understanding little by little

The importance of a “mark”

What if it’s not removed or cleaned or smoothened

Would it stay there, like forever?

And if more such marks are made like layers

On top of one another, would they become stronger marks

And would that make it immortal

Big or small

Dull or shiny

Short or tall

In falling on the wet ground,

Would she become an immortal mark

Would she leave her “imprint” and

Make this pavement beautiful?

In falling, would she have delivered

Her “baggage”?

And she decided to do just that.

In the morning hours of a chilly fall

She simply unhinged herself

And Fell!

The humans came

They looked at the solitary leaf on the cemented pavement

Hurled out a few words in annoyance

Nothing but just one leaf

They decided to leave it alone.

The rest of the path was smooth, shiny and grey and just one leaf

Next morning the cement dried

And the leaf was brushed away

And to everyone’s astonishment

Under the dry leaf,

Laid the most remarkable imprint of the baby leaf

The baby leaf

Delivered its baggage on earth.