"Fall" in Rio

As Riorose said in a prior blog entry, the vegetation in city of Rio is generally a monochromatic green. The greens of the trees and bushes can be aggressive. But in the middle of July of this year, my walk to the gym (Mamute) was a delight of color. In my four years living here and in all the prior times visiting, I have never seen such color. Maybe it was the early cold spell in June that triggered it. The ficus were dropping their broad leaves and it was still early enough in the day that the city workers and porteiros had not finished sweeping, the sidewalks were littered with bright yellow, brown, and red/brown/yellow leaves.

The warm air was full of the smell of old leaves. I actually had a moment of two of nostalgia for my youth in southern Michigan, except that it was July not October and the air was warm not chilled, it really could have been fall. As when I was little I kicked some leaves just for the joy of the smell of leaves it stired up.