The coming harvest.

July 29.

Apples now by their size remind me of the harvest. I see a geranium leaf turned red in the shade of a copse; the same color with the woodbine seen yesterday. 

These leaves interest me as much as flowers. I should like to have a complete list of those that are the first to turn red or yellow. How attractive is color, especially red; kindred this with the color of fruits in the harvest and skies in the evening. 

The colors which some rather obscure leaves assume in the fall in dark copses or unobserved by the roadside interest me more than their flowers. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 29, 1852

These leaves interest me as much as flowers. See May 21, 1860 (“The birches by the railroad, as I am whirled by them in the cars, flash upon me yellow as gamboge, their leaves more like flowers than foliage.”)