It’s a long path between bud and ground.

A road full of unfurling, a passionate push towards a green blush

up in the boughs.

The carefully whittled pull of veins

pushing up from petiole.

A ticklish midrib, a bony spine, the bending smile of stacked cells

eager to catch sunlight.

A summer spent:

waving

shading

breathing

cleaning

dappling sunlight on brown skin

whispers and clatters muddling together, musically, conducted by the able hands of zephyrs.

Then the fall.

The drop in temperature.

The fade of kelly bright chloroplasts to rusty,

spent hues.

And the letting go, settling into musty earth as blankets to blankets.

Dust to dust.

A leafy detritus

overripe

and spent,

makes the prettiest things.

This decolletage candy is built of a gazillion spent, sterling leaves wrapped carefully around a huge cut of amethyst sage agate. As usual, I can’t utter enough compliments to do this cabochon justice. I had it cut with a huge dome and the nuances in color and pattern are too fantastic to convey. It has to be seen to be believed. The pendant is a glorious mess of hidden bails that form a complex web of draping chains. An etched and anticlastically raised leaf dangles from one side of the pendant for a perfectly balanced but asymmetric piece that will tame straying eyes and delight fingertips.