Lonesome Valley: Spring fashion news—Green is a breath of fresh air

It's the same thing every year. Winter drags on like spring will never come. It's not the cold and the darkness of winter we don't like. It's the total lack of color. Bare trunks and branches stand stark against the snow; they're the worst of all colors-black.

Yes, black is important in Nature's wardrobe, as it is in ours. It's meant as a backdrop for brighter hues. Without them, it is terrifying. Black is what's left when all colors drain away. Black is the color of death.

That's what makes spring so exciting. Even when it's wet and cold, like this year, spring brings something we desperately need right now--green. Small and delicate, shaped like shells, sickles, or tiny kites, the leaves appear. First you can only see them close up. From a distance, the branches still look bare. But then the leaves expand-soon enough they're visible both far and near. First there is a haze of that lovely color brushed across the branches. Then the individual leaves grow large enough to see. Who can deny they lift the heart?

'Nature's first green is gold,' wrote Robert Frost. And it's true-green, especially in the spring, ISN'T just one, monotonous color. Some new leaves ARE gold. Some are a bright yellow-green, and glow like Vaseline glass. Some hold hints of burgundy, bronze, or purple. Like Frost said, these first colors are transitory, sometimes lasting only hours. That doesn't stop us from clutching their beauty to us in a post-winter death grip.

The color of leaves, after months of black and white, is amazing enough. But that's not their only gift. Pure and simple, leaves breathe. As part of their own processes, they take in stale air and give back pure oxygen. No wonder we greet them with relief!

Soon enough the flowers arrive to steal our attention. But the leaves remain. They serve as a backdrop for the brighter colors, and add structural support. Above all, they keep on breathing, cleaning the air around us, 'way into fall, and storing up food for winter. That food, chlorophyll, is what makes leaves green.

It's a breath of fresh air for us!

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