The Mysterious Life of a Bush

Nature Observation One:

On Tuesday September 4th, in the late afternoon on the campus of Texas Christian University the sun shown down upon a bush planted along a walkway. The various shades of green leaves sprouting forth from sturdy branches cradled numerous stages of life. Some of the pink petals, which the green leaves embraced, were withering away to white and then brown, the sun slowly bleaching their color, their pigments disintegrating. These flowers were growing dry; all their water had evaporated, crunching up, worn down by life. The dying flowers petals were breaking off and drifting down to rest among the other dead petals, sprinkled in the shade below the bush, in their own little graveyard. These flowers were at the end of their life, no longer able to hold on, giving into the natural chaos of the world.

The green leaves didn’t just house these dying flowers though; they also supported vibrant ones reaching up towards the sun. These flowers were juvenile, lush, and full of life, yet to experience the wear and tear that the older flowers had endured. There fuchsia petals basking in the glow of the afternoon sun, some more vibrant and red others a softer pink. They all had little white spots in the center though where they stamen stood, yellow with pollen. The petals were velvety soft, light fuzz covering lying over them. They were delicate, folding easily when rubbed in between my figures, yet strong not collapsing or ripping under my touch. Some flowers petals folded out at the edges, seeming to expose their whole selves, while others stood more erect reaching for the sky above them. Their petals were shaped like long ovals pushed together with slightly pointy tips in the middle of the oval. These flowers swayed gently dancing in the almost imperceptible breeze.

The bush wasn’t just made up of delicate pink flower resting a top it; it was also filled with leaves. Some leaves were smaller and a lighter green, still growing. They have not yet spent as much time in the sun yet, so they do not have as much chlorophyll as some of their peers. Others were larger and darker green, having spent more of their lives soaking up the sun. This bush also had dying leaves just as it had dying flowers. The dying leaves were turning a dark brown and drying up, as well as falling to join the graveyard of petals below, going back to the earth where they had originally been sowed. All the leaves had an elongated oval shape rounding into a pointy tip at the outer edge of the leaf. The edges of the leaves were serrated, jutting sharply out making them rough and prickly. The leaves were filled with veins. Most leaves possessed a large center vein reaching down the length of the leaf and caring a dark red hue. The smaller dark green veins fountained off of the main vein delivering water to the furthest components of the leaves. They were waxy to the touch, yet they did not do not leave any residue on my fingers, nor did there green rub off. The leaf was agile to a certain point, bending and looking to be flexible until suddenly it broke, a split seem tearing down the middle. This crevice leaked out the nutritious sugar water that the leaf depended on to continue living, draining the plant of its nutrients. The bush was satisfying to observe with its contrasting green leaves and pink flowers, both making the other stand out and seem more vibrant, than when they stand on their own. The bush was also a metaphor for life, that it has layers, and different stages, and we can coexist among each other in these different stages of life.

This is the Bush described above

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