Infinitesimal Reality: City on the Leaf

There are hidden worlds all around us. You stomp on subtle universes all day long, and never realize it. The belly of a raindrop…frost pillars…flower teeth…

…Is the reality of a dewdrop any less significant than yours? Hmmm….

Take a look at this:

What do you see?

Never-mind what it is. What does it look like? Does it seem otherworldly and oddly familiar? I may have an explanation, which I’ll ask, in the form of another question: Doesn’t the image look a city at night—photographed from an unfathomable altitude—where the satellites float?

Look closely.

Do you see the roads? A disheveled lattice etched into a rugged landscape.

Do you see the sodium vapor lights? An electrical siphonophore: each bulb contributing to the collective glimmer.

Maybe you can imagine someone living down there…encapsulated inside of their own little life. A humming hive of imperceivable people.

The image above was taken from the International Space Station (from an Expedition 34 crew member). The city of Belgium glows against the prevailing night while squiggly, vein-like roads converge into a illuminating nucleus. Many cities exhibit a similar structure.

Did you figure out what the first image is of? I’ll go ahead and tell you: the image is a close-up perspective of a leaf—morning sunlight bled through the structure—which caused an ephemeral glow. The perceivable “roads” are simply veins sprawling through the leaf’s upper epidermis. The nodes of illumination are projected reflections of the sun, while the golden hue was caused by the leaf’s inevitable autumn demise.

How many transient moments have we missed? How many infinitesimal realities have we stepped on? Who knows.

* Image Specifications: Canon Rebel T5i + Canon EF 50mm Macro lens + Canon EF 100mm USM Macro Lens (Reverse-coupled photography)