A Leaf Never Detaches

by Glenna Lee

I came to the forest to watch a leaf fall.

Last year, I watched leaves land,

Altogether a different miracle.

To watch a leaf land

We adapt our sight to tracking motion.

But to watch a leaf detach from its mother’s branch?

That is to attune yourself so keenly to nature that you can sense

Wonder before the magic reacts.

And so I watched for hours

That sultry day in November

That shouldn’t have welcomed me in so warmly

And yet I crept deeply into it with a tshirt and sunscreen.

And I lay underneath the tree canopy

Watching leaves catch wind.

I entreated the dried leaves

The ones whose colors had already given way.

And I watched.

Saw many falling, but not a single

Take their last breath and detach and flow.

They dangled from their stem

Like a wiggled tooth to the gum.

And now dear reader

I have a better hunch:

Leaves don’t fall from the trees as

Humans presume.

They come straight from heaven;

God’s sweet little kisses.

Waste your time watching that leaf

The sun catches

As the harsh wind may tug

The leaf never falls

And I suppose within that very tenacity

There is magic.

A Leaf Never Detaches is the Soul Walk Project of Glenna Lee, FTS Certified Forest Therapy Guide, October 2022 cohort.