The days are getting shorter, and the temperature is getting lower. These are signs that the autumn is here, and cues for the trees to start preparing for the winter. We all enjoy the colors of autumn leaves. Did you ever wonder how and why a fall leaf changes color? Why a maple leaf turns bright red? Where do the yellows and oranges come from?
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Quiz: What do autumn leaves & ripening bananas have in common?
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Photo of maple leaves my wife picked from the roadside. I arranged them according to their color and call it the "cycle or color of life".
Everyone has their favorite time of the year. Some like spring because everything is fresh; some like summer for the sunshine and long days; others like winter for the snow and holidays; but what's there in autumn?
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For those who are successful, autumn is the season for harvesting. It's a time to reap and enjoy the fruit of your labor.
But for those who are not successful, there is nothing to look forward to. Autumn marks "the end of one's job, career, or life. It is the time for dreading yet another winter. It is the time for watching the trees lose their leaves and feeling a sense of loss, the passing of time. Autumn is a wistful time for wishing things might have been different. Autumns brings a harvest of regret" (D. Waitley, p. 258).
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Reflection: For me, I like autumn! It is the most colorful time of the year, a reminder from heaven that life is beautiful! More poignant, the rotting maple leaves by the roadside potray our mortality. Our earthly life, no matter how beautiful, is short! Like any food items sold in the grocery shop, we have a manufacturing date as well as an expiry date. One day, sooner or later, we will expire and join those fallen leaves on the ground.
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"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." - Job 1:20
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Answer: The green color in unripe bananas comes from chlorophyll, the same pigment that gives green leaves their color. As bananas ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down and disappears, revealing the yellow color which has been there all along. The yellows and oranges of autumn leaves are also revealed as their chlorophyll breaks down.
Why do fall leaves change color? 
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.
The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.
It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.
