Driving behind Death

In the city where I live in Japan, and most likely elsewhere in the country, drivers are required to prominently place special labels on their vehicles if they're either very young or very old.

In line with the culture's emphasis on nature, these stickers depict a green summer leaf, and an orange-brown fall leaf, respectively.

The perils of driving are perhaps symbolized by the ease with which a leaf is plucked from a tree, as any driver's life can be torn out of existence in an unhappy instant.

Seeing the fall leaf always leaves me smiling however. This driver could die at any time. He's a brown wrinkled leaf; his stem could detach from the branch momentarily; he could drift down slowly to the dark earth, never to drive again. But unlike the gently falling leaf, once "detached", this driver could send his vehicle careening into pedestrians or through shop windows.

I smile when I see the brown leaf, but I also pull back... a lot.