The Ultimate guide to Fall Colors

 As the harvest season slows down, fall colors become abundant. Nature amazes and enchants us with endless shades of red, orange and yellow. But it’s not only nature that is preparing for a color change: the colors of autumn have inspired artists and writers around the world for centuries, and today they continue to amaze the public as they regularly appear in many of the products that accompany everyday life: fashion, make-up and even design offer new lines and collections that best embody the many facets of the color of the period. For this reason, the yearly Fall color trend should always be kept in mind, repeating as regularly as Christmas or Halloween and influencing publishers, designers and creators all around the world.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of fall colors, including an explanation of why they develop in nature on foliage, the process that generates them, how they affect our mood, how they inspired artists and some selections of images, color palettes, and ideas related to fall and its celebrations.

Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.

William Cullen Bryant

What is Fall?

The season Autumn is called Fall in the United States because leaves fall from the trees at this time of year. Fall is the period between the autumnal equinox (day and night equal in length) on September 22 or 23, and the winter solstice (year’s shortest day) on December 21 or 22. The hours of darkness become greater than those of light and the first cold weather begins to press at the doors. This season, which anticipates the grayness of winter, can give us breathtaking landscapes and colors. The concept of autumn, in North American and Europe, is deeply connected with the harvesting of crops; in many cultures Fall months have been marked by rites and festivals revolving around the season’s importance in food production and the preparation for Winter. Nowadays some of these rites have become part of popular culture and developed into festivities such as Halloween. 

What are Fall Colors?

Fall Colors or Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the green leaves of many trees and shrubs by which they take on shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown. The phenomenon is commonly called fall colors, fall foliage, or simply foliage.

Around September and October (fall foliage peak times), in some areas of Canada and the United States, “leaf peeping” tourism is a major activity. 

Fall Colors in Nature: Leaf Pigments

A color palette needs pigments, and three types are involved in fall colors:

Carotenoids: Produces yellow, orange and brown colors. It can be found in large quantities in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas

Chlorophyll: Gives leaves a basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis: the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to produce nutrients in the form of sugars.

Anthocyanin: This pigment gives color to wonderful things such as cranberries, red apples, grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries and plums. 

The changing colors of the foliage on the trees is their preparation for winter. 

When chlorophyll is abundant in the leaf’s cells, as during the growing season, the green color dominates and masks out the other colors present in the leaf. 

As fall approaches, daylight hours are shortening and temperatures are cooling, the veins are gradually closed off by a layer of cork cells that develops at the base of each leaf. During this time, the amount of chlorophyll in the leaf decreases. Often, the veins are still green after the tissues between them have almost completely changed color.

Forgot- beauty you are made of

You are not your age,

Nor the size of clothes you wear,

You are not a weight,

Or the colour of your hair,

You are not your name,

Or the dimples in your cheeks,

You are all the books you read,

And all the words you speak,

You are your croaky morning voice,

And the smiles you try to hide,

You’re the sweetness in your laughter,

And every tear you’ve cried,

You’re the songs you sing so loudly,

When you know you’re all alone,

You’re the places that you’ve been to,

And the one that you call home,

You’re the things that you believe in,

And the people that you love,

You’re the photos in your bedroom,

And the future you dream of,

You’re made of so much beauty,

But it seems that you forgot,

When you decided that you were defined,

By all the things you’re not.

The Sound of Silence

The sound of two people ignoring each other

The sound of no one being there for another

The sound of eerie nothingness engulfing the air

The sound of no one even bothering to care

The sound of wind blowing everything away

The sound of the pain you go through everyday

The sound of everything that is unknown

The sound of being completely alone

The sound of thinking quietly inside

The sound of being left behind

The sound of trying not to cry

The sound of wishing you could die

The sound of silence can’t be heard

Just like the soft swift wings of a bird

The sound of silence can seem unreal

The sound of silence is something you feel

The sound of silence

Soft yet shril

The sound of silence

I think

Can kill

I will Love you, until End of Time

I will love you

as long as the sun

burns in the sky,

as long as the moon

shines its light

into the dark night,

until the raging

blue oceans become

calm and run dry.

I will love you

until the end of time.

It’s okay

‘It’s okay’

She whispers to herself.

‘It’s okay’

But is it?

She gave everything she had

to others.

She carved her own soul for

the people around her.

But now,

when she needs the same,

she has no one to turn to.

No one will rescue them.

So she sits on the floor,

telling herself

‘it’s okay’

knowing it’d not,

knowing it will never be.

Didn’t I tell you, my love?

You’re all alone.

I’m the kind of girl

Who is quiet in large groups or around

people I don’t know; you only see the real

me if we’re close. I smile and laugh a lot

especially at the most inappropriate times.

   I’m a hopeless romantic.

I trip over air, up stairs and over 

people’s feet. I am the hardest person to

offend, but it is all too easy to make me

feel horrible. I hate telling people about

my problems; they don’t need

      to worry about me.

I’m the one who listens to other people’s 

problems. I believe people should not be

judged before one takes the time to get to

   know them, yet I am guilty of doing

        that exact thing.

I love to think rather than talk.

I’m awkward, clumsy, shy, starnge….

  but this is me. Take it or leave it.

Temporary

I think I’m dead

Or maybe I’m not

But I feel like a flower

Shriveling in its pot

Like the gleaming stars

That disappear in the day

I’m dissolving bit by bit

While losing my way

My fingertips are snapping

Like the icicles at the pole

I cannot see any footsteps

I can never feel whole

I’m number thirteen on the clock

I’ve been thrown out of existence

The time has killed my passion

Along with my persistence

Destroy me one the battlefield

For my years are running low

In this belligerent world

I’m like a fire in the snow

A House of My Own

Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s . A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed.

Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody’s garbage to pick up after.

  Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.

Take Yourself on Date

Learn how to truly be yourself; go to lunch, get coffee, go and watch a movie, alone and understand that there is no
need to feel lonely . Take it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself. Fall in love with yourself and
romanticise everything you do. The way your voice changes when you ask a shopkeeper, cinema attendant,
waiter or any other person of vague authority for something. The way you bite the inside of your cheek when you are nervous.
They way you feel the heat in your cheeks rising with the cool sides of your hands.
Become enamoured with the little habits and idiosyncrasies that are only noticed by someone who loves you.

What I Would Tell You

To you, love was about multitudes.

To me, love was inordinate.

       I love you, I would say.

       How much? You would ask.

I couldn’t find the words to answer you then.

But they have found their way to me since. And this is what I would tell you.

I would blanket the world in utter darkness; I would pull back

the veil of light and reveal to you, a blinding crescendo of stars.

I would drain all the seas and ask you to count-  one by one- every

grain of sand that clings to the ocean floor.

I would tally the beat of every human heart that has echoed since

the dawn of our becoming.

And as you look in awe at the sheer magnitude of my admission,

I would take your hand in mine and tell you; if only you had let

me, this is how much I could have loved you.