In the
Year
of a Tree

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been marking the seasons by the inhale and exhale of this tree.

It sings to me as it radiates with fiery last-chance glory in the fall, then draws in one long-held breath through the winter, bearing layers of white boas as it weathers the quiet and dark.

I know what must eventually come, and yet spring is a shock of freshness, when, out of deadened branches, bursts buds of yellow and green. And then summer: practically sagging with abundance, dense to the tips with life and heat, basking in the reprieve before the next breath.

—kayserifserif

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Yellow and green leaves
In golden light
Almost all yellow
In golden light
A little cloudy
Blue sky
In darker light
Looking a little sparser
Window spotted with rain
Still a little damp
Suddenly bare, flecked with snow
Bare, but bathed in light
Bearing layers of snow
Bare under cloud cover
Lighter sky
Nice morning light
Bare sky under grey sky
Bare but glowing
Bare under blue sky
Wintry scene, covered in snow
Snow under a blue sky
Melting snow
Melting snow
Snow mostly gone
Blue sky
Waking up in the light
Under the snow again
Grey and blustery
A little clearer today
Blue-grey sky
Grey sky
Flecks of snow across the branches
A reflection of my hand in the window
A very blue sky
Grey sky
A reflection of my hand in the window
Squinting in the bright morning light
A nice blue-sky day
Overcast again
Clouds floating past past
Sharp outlines in the light
Blurrier amongst the clouds
Bright in the light
Same as the day before
Same as the day before
Overcast again
Bright in the light
A little brighter still
Softer when overcast
Flecked with rain
Brighter again
The shadows fall a little different
Falling into the shadows more
Grey and blue
Overcast
Moving shadows, bluer today
Greyer today
In sharp relief
Brighter and softer
Back into blur on an overcast day
Blue-sky day
Overcast and flecked with rain
Hello again! bright morning light
Twisting in the breath but mostly the same
Overcast
Overcast
Overcast
Overcast
A little brighter
Back into the clouds
Here it is again, outlined against the blue
Overcast
Is that a hint of colour?
Buds coming out!
Wiggling in the wind
Overcast but that makes the colour stand out more
Buds against a blue sky
Brightening
Sky bluer, tree greener
Overcast but still budding
Sharpened green against a blue sky
Green with shadows
Teeming with young fresh leaves
Sharper in today's light
Sharper in today's light
Getting fuller by the day
Evening light
Green leaves against a blue sky
Overcast
Overcast
Brighter green, sagging with the weight
Boughs lifting
Richer green
Highlights and shadows against a blue sky
Overcast with downy clouds
Back in sharp relief
Growing deeper and richer
Sagging deeper
Breathing as the clouds float past
Breathing
Green against a blue sky
Darker green with tips of yellow
More green exposed to the sun, giving the appearance of yellow
Shadows moving
A little washed out in the grey
More washed out, but still tipped with bright points
Sagging with abundance
Lifting against a bright blue sky
Weary against a grey sky
Back to blue
Looking askance on a grey-blue day
Brighter and higher
Overcast again
Turning a little back to the left
Shadows changing, coloring the leaves yellower
Colours deepening against a rich blue sky
Shifting shadows
Straightening a bit to look into the camera
Opening the lungs a bit, rich and green
Yellowness, or sunlight, in the leaves
A little twist in posture
Tilting back
A nod forward
Looking left
Down, with a cloudy sky
Back to blue, looking up
Looking forward
Washed out in the clouds
Colours moving across the tree
Sharpened on a bright day
Overcast again
A nostalgic, fading light
Bright blue
Grey and cloudy
Bright and sharp again
Shadows moving, a little flatter
Bright against the surrounding buildings
Back in flatter shadows
A little bluer, tilting right
Back in the middle, leaves lifting to meet the sun
Overcast and grey
Twisting, a hesitant blue sky
Broken up by clumps of clouds
A branch on the other side waves in the background
You notice the branch now, peeking out through a circle of negative space
Negative spaces show a grey sky behind the tree
Blue-grey painted on the base
Brighter, shadows from below
A pallor of grey
Lifted up by the colours of the day
Minute shifts
A slight flattening
A slight dulling
A slight drooping
A little twist in the gloom
Brighter today
Green and yellow start to look different on the tree
Brightness still
Brightness still
Pushed back into flatness
Shadows shifting
The light lifts, revealing specks of yellow
The tree straightens, the light falls quieter
Flatter today
Wider today
A little greyer today
It droops with the weather
Twists a little
Lifts a little
There, the yellow creeps back in
Yellow peeking out of the grey
Darker clouds; still, the yellow can't be ignored
Darker clouds; still, the yellow can't be ignored
Brighter today
Shadows fall differently; yellow makes its way forward
Yellow comes forward
The sun helps; yellow seems dominant
The shadows darken amongst patches of yellow
The colours are flattened
A grey day; yellow persists
Golden, golden light; all of it looks yellowed
Back to green, but it won't be for long
Back to green, but it won't be for long
The light falls again
Shadows shift
The tree twists
Straightens on a grey day, still holding pockets of yellow
Spotlight on the leaves
Shadows shift
Golden
A little rise
A little fall
As if blurred out
Now the light falls on a burnished tree, green barely hanging on between yellow and orange
Golden light
Hazy
Orange against the grey clouds
Orange in the full light
Orange and getting deeper
Crisp and full with fall
Getting thinner and browner from the top
The decay spreads down
Sparse and bottom-heavy against a blue sky
Orange leaves clutch to the bottom left branches, the last ones to feel the effects of weather and time