Palo Verdes
by Jane St. Clair
When the Spaniards came to the Southwest, they named these trees “Palo Verdes,” which means “Green Sticks.”
They called them by that name because they had never seen trees with green bark before.
I wonder what they thought of the Palo Verdes in springtime when their great yellow canopies come to life. I wonder if they too saw millions of tiny yellow flowers light up the desert, and if they watched them flash and twirl against the bright turquoise sky.
Palo Verdes are everywhere in the Sonoran spring. Since the desert is usually a dusty brown along with a zillion shades of pastel greens, this means when the Palo Verde trees bloom, they are the whole show.
The contrast of bright yellow flowers against the bright blue sky can be too much for our human eyes to grasp. No wonder Van Gogh went nuts. Colors can do that to you.
I love the way the little Palo Verde petals get caught in the wind and flutter around. I like the way their petals float and dance in space whenever they are caught in a silvery thread left by a spider. I love the way these trees look in different lights, especially sunset.When the sun backlights Palo Verdes in a certain way, their blossoms look like shining polka dots, like stars dotting the night sky.
Then –just when you think Palo Verdes could not bring more beauty to the desert– their little petals start to drop. The petals are only the size of your thumbnail, and they’re simple little things, just four crinkly petals arranged in a star. When they are dropping, you walk with a velvet yellow carpet under your feet … When you look up, there’s yellow. Look down, there’s yellow. Yellow everywhere you look!
Autumn back East, back home, is magnificent with red, brown, yellow and orange colors. Yet the combination of Palo Verde yellow and Arizona turquoise in the Sonoran spring is just as jarring and just as beautiful as a Midwestern fall.
Pablo Picasso once asked the question, “Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this?”
I doubt if you can explain it. I also think it’s unimportant to explain things anyway – especially if you can just let two colors sing.
Wising Up Press accepted Jane St. Clair’s short story, “Secrets of Mama Kardashian,” to be included in a new anthology called Crossing Class: The Invisible Wall. The stories in this book all explore “The great unspeakable” about a country based on the principle that all people are equal.