2018
03.06

Impressionist Leafscape – flaneur foto-art – copyright Dennis Mealor 2018

AFTER THE RAIN – seen near Buderim Q. (Australia).

The gardener of a new retirement village seems bent on trying to clean up leaf markings on the just-laid concrete (public) footpath out front. But then, that is his job.

I see him almost daily on my walks, sweeping the long path. Well, not quite right. Rather than sweep, he uses a leaf blower. Leaf Blowers: Never has so much noise been generated by so few, to annoy so many. Then he hoses the path, to try to remove the marks made by the eucalyptus leaves from the adjacent rain forest. Mostly in vain. The process gets rid of some of the markings. Unfortunately for him, impressionist echoes of the leaves still remain.

But all the better for me.

I took this photo just after rain, before the gardener had had time to do his stuff. Dappled light in the blue haze of morning. A leaf, alongside another’s ghostly impression. There were many more such examples along the footpath. They reminded me of fossils. Surprisingly, when I did some scientific research (read “Google” there), fossils that are merely imprints are called either imprint fossils; or impression fossils. So I went with the impression idea, a la Impressionism. Fitted in with my little play on words in the heading, I thought.

(click on image to enlarge in HD)