I was talking with a mate today about the glorious weather that we have been having and he remarked that he had taken a stroll the other day and was a bit dismayed. He said all the Ginko trees, which turn a brilliant yellow in autumn, leaves were dead or dying. He was worried that there wouldn’t be much in the way of an explosion of colors that we usually get. The leaves in our collective neighborhoods took a battering in the typhoon 15 (Moke) that rolled through last Wednesday. The trees for the most part survived. It was the bashing of the leaves on each other that damaged them. I hadn’t noticed it too closely, other than my own plants on my patio, until I was walking home from my station today. A Ginko tree near the station looked as if all the leaves were pretty much been beat into brown submission.
I am going to be positive about this. I am sure we will get some autumn leaves even if I am unsure of how intense it may or may not be. It will just sharped my vision. I will have to hunt out those colors that soothe my soul after the heat of Tokyo’s summer. The trees that survived with their leaves intact are going to shine. They will pop out across the urban landscape. Those yellows, reds, oranges, mixed hues all there inviting the residents to gave up into their autumn hearts.
In the meantime, I was stopped in my tracks yesterday when I snapped this image. The sun has right behind the leaves and it caused them to go from hunter green to an neon lit yellow. For now I will have to be content with this hue. A magical hue, and a magical time of day and year.
