Week 10 Post- Maple Tree

Often on my walk to class, I stop and notice the row of maple trees standing in the courtyard. I've always loved these trees. When life feels monotonous, the green and yellow maple leaves always remind me of all the richness that surrounds me on campus when I "look closer." On sunny afternoons, light shines through the leaves and hits my face in interspersed rays. This makes me think of refraction and how light can travel through different mediums like leaves, often exposing their transparency in the process. It also makes me think of the movement of light, and how this movement seems to bring even inanimate objects to life. It's not often I have the chance to see these trees after daylight. But on Thursday night, as I waited for Woyzeck to begin, I laid down under the maple trees and glared up at the stars. In the night, the trees felt different. The green hue of the leaves was made visible by the lamp post, but in contrast to the night sky, they appeared a much darker shade of green and less saturate. The leaves appeared solid and less transparent. It made me think of how our eyes perceive color differently in relation to the colors around it- for instance the leaves under the blue sky are much warmer, brighter and saturate than they are under the night sky. When the quality of light and color change, their meanings change too. We may identify with them in completely different ways. Now, the maple trees remind me of tonality and how color effects the way we relate to objects; even moreso than other visible factors like shape or size.