On this first day of spring, I set out down Piney Woods Church Road in search of an appropriately evocative subject for a portrait. I was hoping for another spring wildflower — purple violets are blooming today in my backyard, and I was expecting I might find one on my stroll. The only flower in bloom along the roadside that I have not documented in this blog is a tiny yellow blossom with a green center that belongs to a weed that prefers wet places and stalwartly resists being brought into focus in my lens, despite several days, wet shoes, and muddy cuffs.
What caught my eye, instead, was a minute red leaf, the size of my pinky fingernail (and I have small hands). It was one leaf of only a few, on a roadside plant I could not identify (mostly because there was so little of it present in the first place). The plant appeared to have been mowed, or cropped by a horse or a deer. The leaf was such a brilliant red color that I felt called upon to photograph it.
There is something delightfully symmetrical about this picture, evoking autumn on the first day of spring. I am reminded of the Chinese yin-yang symbol, in which both dark and light contain within themselves a circle of the other. In this same way, my spring walk contained, as well, a reminder of the autumn to come.
But for now, bring on the wildflowers!
