Under the Japanese Maple

“The maples perhaps undergo the most complete transformation of all the trees. Their leaves fairly become luminous, as if they glowed with inward light. A maple-tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp. Even on cloudy days its presence helps to dispel the gloom”.

From the book ‘Under the Maples’ by the American naturalist and nature essayist John Burroughs (1837-1921), published posthumously in 1921