Autumn is Come

Autumn is come. The signs are obvious: cooler weather, longer
shadows, shorter days, clearer skies, drier air etc. We have been living in the city for
so long that it feels as if nothing much has changed: the streets are as
crowded, the traffic as congested, the same buildings stand where we
see them everyday. We go to the same offices, the same restaurants, the
same supermarkets and return at the end of the day to the same homes. We see the same family members, we meet the same colleagues at the office and the same friends after work. Yet it's not the
same in nature: certain flowers have disappeared, others are blooming still,
seed pods have turned into melons, berries, fruits... Dragon flies and
butterflies are busy breeding. Quietly but unmistakably, they tell of the arrival
of the season of maturity, the coming of a season of soft breezes, free from torrential rains, the brash
thunderclaps and lightning flashes of the previous season, free from the frenetic
blooming of those flowers which seem to be able to thrive only between the quick reverses of sunlight and rain within a few hours.



The leaves of the shrubs are turning yellow

Older leaves are changing colors

Green has turned to yellow and then brown. We see the gradual change of color from the innermost part of the leaf towards its edges.

Some have become worm eaten.

Some have turned brown at the edges

There seems little chance of this little leaf to grow to its full size now. Nature is merciless: late comers have to face their fate, just like millions of others before them.

But some hibiscus seem determined to make a desperate dash against time

but they seem to have lost some of its bright summer colors

Having struggled, its petals start wrinkling.

A jumble of flowers and leaves sharing the same fate



But this little white zephyr lily is not yet ready to call it a day.

And certainly not these little buds of the Chinese ixora.

But the sun who has seen all, will continue to bestow its golden glow upon everything at its leisure. The sun is just: it makes no distinctions of who or what you are. It has done so for millions of years past. And it doesn't look like it'll change its habit for a really long time still to come.