Wonderful leaves

 

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I love flowers - I'm obsessed with taking photos of them, particularly mountain wildflowers. Their variety of design and color, intricacy of detail, subtle texture and form – they are amazing and entrancing creations.

But today I looked past the blossoms and noticed leaves. Most of us don’t pay as much attention to leaves as we do to flowers. They don’t seem to be as interesting.

But yet – when we take the time to get close, they are magnificent. Just as much variety, all kinds of intricacy, symmetry – just look at those ferns! The leaves are astonishingly beautiful in a way quite different from flowers. All these leaves were ones I saw just today on a single hike.

Part of the wonder of flower blooms is their role in the reproduction of the plant, including the pollination (often aided by insects) that contributes to that process.

But part of the wonder of leaves is their role in generating food for the plant – leaves are able to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, combine it with water, use chlorophyll (that gives leaves the characteristic green color) to absorb energy from sunlight, and through the magic of chemical recombination, create pure oxygen and glucose sugar. So much in our world depends on that process! Truly one of the great ongoing miracles of our world.

The colors and designs of flowers are part of their means of accomplishing their process, often to attract pollinators. Leaves too are optimized in a variety of ways (shape, placement, orientation) to succeed at their process.

I #GiveThanks to know that there is purpose for both the show and beauty of blooms, and the efficient functionality of leaves. It seems some people have more strength as the external presentation (showy and colorful), and some are like more the functional background leaves. Which is better? Which is more needed? Both are essential. But isn’t it fascinating to recognize that the leaf is more than just function – it too has its own beauty? We should remember that about each other. There is always beauty in others, though it may be different from what we traditionally look for and expect.