Yesterday afternoon, as a steady south wind brought warm, humid air into central Missouri, I rescued our Beetle from the garage and headed for the country. Escorted by turkey vultures, sailing along in the cloudy sky, I did not encounter many birds or mammals but I was taken by the greenery, ascending from the lush grass, through the shrub lines and into the trees.
Our recent warm, wet weather had produced the transition from winter browns to these many shades of green, the product of chlorophyll, the fuel of life on Earth. Absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, green plants sustain our atmosphere, long threatened by the burning of fossil fuels.
Of course, the leaves themselves feed a wide variety of life forms, from microbes to insects to mammals, ourselves included. Following the fickle weather of March, this explosion of greenery in April is always a welcome spectacle.
