My earliest memory consists of one thing: an intense, warm flash of light. It must have been the Sun, just as I came from my bud.
     Some of us are jaundiced when we are born, but according to Mother, I was the greenest little Bud that spring. She said it was because I was closest to the Sun...out on top, but the Wind still tousled me often, even when I was just opening up. That worried Mother. She suggested I strengthen my stem and reach for the Sky, despite the whims of the Wind.
     I am never awake at night. The days are shorter and I have my dark, quiet solitude in the night.  Even with the extra sleep, I have no energy and I feel like the withered leaves I can see on the ground.
     Because of the night, I don't know how I ended up here. It is cold, and it's colder than any rain I've ever felt. I'm in a pool of water. I've seen this place from my old home. Mother called it a Spring. She said that Springs feed the Roots when it doesn't rain for a long time.
     But my skin isn't green anymore. I am brown, and the bug bites from summer are more apparent than ever. Water is all around me, but I can't drink and make myself green again.
     I can see my sisters on the Ground. Mother said that we leaves fall to the Ground and become a part of it. We help the Roots grow Trees, and then Trees grow leaves.
     How can I turn to Soil here? Mother never said that leaves may turn to Water. What will become of me?

     Where have I been? the last that I rememebr is the cold on my flesh.
     Where <iis> my flesh? Did it drift away with teh cold? I can only see my veins...they have brrittled away. I am not Soil yet! My dry skin has drifted away...where do I go?

     At first it was a relief to be dry. Some Pine Needles once tried to explain to me what sticky was. It's like needing to be near something because you can't go anywhere else. It's watery and a humid warm. This <isticky> has watered me to something that feels like a dried Leaf with its flesh.
     Can this sticky be soil? This dried leaf I am sticky with can become Soil with me. Like the ohter Leaves, it will only take patience, and I will be a part again.