First Day of School - What tree would I be?

Walked to work today. It's the first day of school. On Sunday we went to Half Moon Bay. On the way there (or back) Raji asked us what tree we would be, if we were a tree. It wasn't immediately obvious to me then, what tree I'd be, and I started thinking of stately pines with ponderous cones, curvy-crazy windswept cypresses, a lonesome softly swaying weeping willow, a showy mimosa with flirty pink fringes for flowers. None of them was me though. Today walking to work it hit me. Doh! I'd be a plum.

These days the pretty plums lining Idylberry have their leaves all black, black with the vaguest tinge of maroon through the light. Bruisy purple, dropping slightly, full and thirsty in the late summer heat. All the fruit has long fallen and in a few months it will be the leaves' turn to fall, ripped and rustled in the breeze, flying down the street, gathering in black puddles at our feet. Then the trunks and branches stand there, bare and stately, grasping plaintive at the sky. I've always loved bare branches in winter.