Fallen Leaves in Berlin

A photographic documentary of the colorful season

It was meant to be a short trip to the city. Just to go inside the embassy for a visa appointment. But I’m not leaving my house these days without my camera in the bag. You never know…

I dropped David right in front of the building and then looked for parking in the neighboring street. Already on our way into the city, I was stunned by the colors of the trees lining the streets.

It’s fall.

The trees have changed their dress and are slowly dropping the leaves, piece by piece.

I finally found an open slot standing halfway on the pavement and half on the road but that’s apparently how people park in Berlin.

I grabbed my wide-angle lens and started walking back toward the embassy.

This residential area was full of life. On the streets. No, I did not pass any humans but all different kinds of trees and leaves painted yellow, orange, and red.

With every gust of wind blowing through the street, more leaves were falling onto the ground. But they weren’t just dropping. They were dancing in the sky. Gracefully floating through the air the colorful leaves were taking over the scene.

I knew better than to take pictures in front of the embassy building, especially this specific embassy. Always paranoid about people wanting to do bad things. But the alley in front of the building was just too pretty not to be captured.

I remained on the corner of the street, placed my camera on the floor, and snipped a few shots of the fallen leaves.

A gardener was busy at work collecting the leaves in front of the embassy building but that was a thankless task. Every few minutes new leaves were dropping down right there where she had cleaned already.

I looked across the main street and played around with the focus and these brightly colored leaves.

The color yellow was mostly gone in this corner of the city. Orange and red were shining bright and strong.

I took one more picture of a pile of leaves on the ground before I escaped around the corner on the other side of the embassy building. By now I had made the security guard and police officer out front more than nervous and thought it’d be good if I get out of their eyes.

I walked onto a small parking lot where I found three mushrooms. Maybe there were more, I didn’t search the area. These three were right next to each other and added so much beauty to this day covered in fallen leaves.

Mushrooms in Berlin. This is city life. And this is fall.

Autumn vibes in Germany’s capital.

The mushrooms were all from the same species but all looked different. Just like us. Humans on earth. Sometimes we look different on the outside, sometimes our insides are different. But in the end, we’re all just humans.

I saw a police car stopping in front of the embassy and was wondering if the security guy had called them. It was surely time for me to leave this place. Luckily David was just walking out of the building and I walked with him back to the car.

For some, it might have been a normal trip to the city to do some paperwork. For me, it was exploring Berlin in the colors of fall.

“October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

This was a written response to JoAnn Ryan asking the Globetrotters community “What Does October Look Like Where You Are?”

More about the season of fall in other parts of the world:

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