The story of Fall colors.

The warmth of summer is almost gone.  It is getting cooler but the chill of winter yet not in sight. It is Fall, one of the best times of the year. It is a time when mother nature uses "greens" to paint a beautiful picture, having a wide range of colors. It looks like a fair, where trees and plants of all kind are aptly decorated.

It was a warm day during the peak of Fall colors, I was out for a stroll in the park. A kid, 4-5 years of age was sitting with his grandfather. I took a bench next to them, and started reading a book, soon their conversation caught my attention.

"Everyone is waiting for you to cut the cake, why are you sitting here?"

"I do not want to cut the cake"

"It is your favorite cake, there are gifts waiting for you, why dont you want to cut the cake?"

"I do not like this party. All my friends have nice theme parties. There were clowns, super heroes, harry  potter, princess at their parties. I do not have any of them."

"It also would have cost a fortune kid!!!", I thought to myself, but the old man smiled patiently.

"This is also a theme party, look at all the trees. They are all dressed up. Did any of your friends have such colorful tree for their party?"

"I do not want this stupid-tree-theme party."

I was sure the boy would start throwing tantrums, which I did not wish to witness. I was about to leave when the old man said -
"Alright I will not ask you to cut the cake, but let me tell you a story. A very real story."

'Why read a story when i can listen to one' I thought and kept my book down.

"This is a story of a boy who lived near the old forest. He would spend hours in the forest, picking up varieties of fruits and berries, and talking to the Old Maple tree - the king of all the trees in the forest. "

"This is not a true story grandpa, how can a tree talk?"

"It really is a true story. There was a time when trees could talk. Back then the trees always remained green, they never lost leaves, not even during the harshest winter. So back to our story. The Maple tree was very fond the boy because he was very kind to all the trees. He would bring them water during summer, talk to them and never hurt them. As time passed, the boy grew up to be fine man, married the farmer's daughter and was blessed with a boy and a girl. He would take his family to the forest and his children would spend hours with the trees. The Maple tree grew fond of the children too.

One year a severe drought hit the surrounding villages.  The storage was almost empty in most of the houses. People were forced to live with one meal per day. Our "boy" was in the woods with his family one day, and the Maple tree noticed that he was upset. When asked why he said 'It is my children's birthday tomorrow. Every year for their birthday I invite the entire village for a treat, but this year I can barely feed my children twice a day.' Feeling pity for this old friend, the Maple tree said, 'We will have your children's treat here, I will arrange for it. Invite the entire village here tomorrow'.

And so he invited the entire village to forest the next day. He had hoped to find some fruits and berries but when he approached the forest he could not believe his own eyes. The tree were no longer green, They were all colored, to celebrate his children's birthday. There was food, lot of it, enough to keep the entire village from going hungry for a month. People danced with joy and sang to the Maple king. And that night it rained and broke the drought spell. Surrounding farms were all green once again and before winter the villagers had enough food for the season.

However, few days after the celebration when he went back to the forest to thank the Maple king, our "boy" noticed that the tree had still not turned green. Most of them were shedding leaves, and some had no leaves left to shed. The Maple king was no different. He had very few leaves left on him. The boy asked what had happened to the trees and when they would all turn green again the Maple King said -

'When this forest was created, we were given magic to stay ever-green. We had to use all of that magic to color ourselves and get food for the village. So we have wait until spring for new leaves to come out.'

The boy was very moved by sacrifice made by all the trees. So he promised that every year he would celebrate his children's birthdays in the forest to honor the trees. And so every year from that day he would celebrate his children's birthday with the trees in the forest, and the trees would turn their leaves from green to different colors. And then they shed the leaves for the winter. So by celebrating your birthday here you will be honoring the trees and the Maple king."

The boy was not yet convinced, he thought for a while and said "Then why dont my friends celebrate their birthdays here?"

The old man smiled and said "Let me tell you a secret. The "boy" in story was my great great great grandfather. The trees had been coloring their leaves for me, and now they do it only for you."

Looking at the shine in the boy's eyes I knew that I would find him here for his next birthday too.