A Curious Thing

Yesterday morning, my father and I watched a leafy tree, as if under a spell, steadily and rapidly empty itself of all its leaves. There was no visible catalyst for this event. There was no wind. There was no rain. Just leaves dropping vertically and unapologetically from branch to the ground. The only sound was the quiet patter of tsch, tsch...tschtsch, tsch, tsch, tschtschtsch...tschtsch...tsch, tsch, tschtsch... as the leaves unaffectedly hit their paved resting place. There was no horizontal drift. There were no wayward leaves. Their trip was so concise its leaves left a perfect yellow-green circle directly beneath the tree's branches. Within an hour, the tree was completely bare.