I am the Dried Leaf
By Tookie Hong, Samuel Li, Chloe he, Soo.
I am a dried leaf. I mean, I was not born as a dried leaf; I used to be a fresh green life just like the people who used to belong anywhere but here, under the gravestone, in the Greenwood cemetery.
So, what is the cemetery? You may ponder,
—- It is
A quiet and peaceful place
as the wind blow
I would I might I possibly will be following your steps and travel to find an interesting soulmate
people come by, come to sit and draw, come to eat and drink,
but most of the time
they would like to bring the flower and cry
I used to be a newborn green leave
Just like all of the souls here
But
Time would fly out, and your life would run out
Like a ticking clock,
And when it ends, I turn yellow and fall down
My color became darker and darker orange.
I fell from the tree branch, danced in the cool wind
Lastly, lay down on the black stone road.
After I dried out, the voice of this world became louder.
When the pedestrians walked on me, I could hear the sound of me being crackled. The sound that soles of passing pedestrians are touching me, we will make the sound of “click click.” Fortunately, I don’t feel any pain; I feel joy. Not only this, I found out that I could hear every single sound here. I hear the birds, the wind blowing through trees, the murmur of the stream, and the whisper of the old couples – even the quiet crying of a young lady sometimes. I wondered if there is any other creature who would feel the same way as I do.
After living here for many years, I feel like everything is limited by Time. Nothing can be the exception, not even time itself. Everything came to this world as a vivid and new life. Through our whole lives, we have to go through the pains, experience the happiness and we eventually become too weak and fragile to fight with those struggles – we leave this world just like we came here at the beginning – I was born here, grew here, and eventually will also go to the earth mother’s embrace. Looking at the clear sky and the slowly fading feeling is actually not bad.
