Years ago, my husband and I spent some time in California and were very taken with the Napa Valley. We even toyed with the idea of living there, but when the dry season came and the hills turned brown, we felt homesick for Connecticut, the smell of rain, and the color green. Nature, of course, is not sentimental about color. Her preference for green is entirely practical. It is the color of life and, wherever there is sufficient rainfall, the prevailing color of the natural landscape. Using the sun's energy, the pigment molecules in chlorophyll magically convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into carbohydrates, which sustain both plants and animals, including us. Green leaves pump oxygen into the atmosphere, allowing us to breathe; we exhale carbon dioxide, providing plants with the raw material of food production.
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