Poem: The Colors of Fall

Watch the animation here.

When trees are dormant or fall asleep
Colored leaves form a heap

Orange, yellow and red leaves
Tumble down in fall's breeze

All leaves then turn brown
As they remain on the ground

Where did the green leaves go?
An interesting story I was told

As days grow short and cold
A wondrous color change we behold

Photosynthesis allows a plant to eat
Using light for fuel, really neat!

Leaves capture the power of the sun
By using pigments, oh how fun

Chlorophyll during growth makes us see green
It masks other colors so they are unseen

Until photosynthesis takes a fall break
The yellow xanthophyll molecules begins to wake

As a tree goes dormant there is no green
Orange leaves mean that we see carotene

As photosynthesis stops, leaves go to bed
The pigment anthocyanin produces the red

So chemistry is at the cause of this change
Leaves turning color is really not strange