Under A Big Leaf

 

Whenever I see these plants each summer, decorating the sidewalks from their big cement pots, I go to stand beneath them. I enjoy looking up to see their ribbed canopies, and the way the sun shines, showing the colors. I remember seeing drawings in books when I was a girl, of other little girls in places more exotic than the Midwestern town where I lived. In some drawings they were carrying leaves big enough to protect them from the rain, or acting as parasols to shade them from the heat of the sun. Whenever I take pictures like this, I wonder if little girls really do carry big leaves in the rain and, does the rain splash up on their legs as it bounces off the muddy paths where they walk?