Spring, just when the leaves of the trees are starting to bud on the branches. Tiny and green, these ball-shaped buds hold the promise of a thriving summer. Every day the buds progress, little by little. Then, when the time is right, they start to uncurl. Each moment of each day brings more and more vastness, until one day, they look like normal leaves. Amazingly, during the summer months, trees store all the extra sunlight and begin producing buds for next spring.

When autumn comes, the leaves start to die, but not without leaving the world with a brilliant show of color. Why do the leaves change pigment? In the fall as the days get shorter, chlorophyll (a chemical that makes leaves green) production, which is regulated by the light, diminishes. Then through the amazing design of trees, the leaves fall off. Now the trees are bare, marking wintertime. After a few months, it is spring and the amazing life cycle of leaves begins again.