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A World That Turns Gold

Every autumn, something quiet and wonderful happens to trees. Green leaves slowly turn yellow, orange, and bright red. Whole forests seem to catch fire with color. Each year this change happens right on time. You can rake the fallen leaves into crunchy piles. But why do leaves change color at all? The answer is hidden inside every single leaf.

Think about how a maple tree looks in October. In June its leaves were a plain, steady green. Now they burn with red, gold, and orange. The tree did not paint itself with new colors. Most of those colors were there all along.

The Green Hidden in Every Leaf

Leaves are like tiny kitchens for the whole tree. They make food using sunlight, air, and water. Scientists call this special food-making work photosynthesis. It is a long word for a simple idea. A green helper called chlorophyll does most of the work. Chlorophyll catches sunlight and turns it into sugar. This sugar is the food that helps trees grow.

Chlorophyll also gives every leaf its bright green color. All summer long, leaves are packed full of it. Green is the color of a busy, healthy leaf. That is why trees look so green in summer.

Trees cannot buy food from a store like we do. They must make every bit of their own food. That is why healthy green leaves matter so much.