The Green Leaves of Summer...Calling...

 

"Calling Me Home," 5 x 7 watercolor, 140 lb. paper

Summer sets in...as the heat rises and memories of summers past flood back.

Several songs capture those moods, and for me, one of them is "The Green Leaves of Summer," by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Weber.

That's probably because I first heard it as a teenager as the theme song to the movie, The Alamo. So romantic, especially for a youngster,  a Texas native, reared on the myths and glory of that Texas bastion, even if the battle occurred in a cold springtime.

Now, after reading and aging, I know the John Wayne movie was more myth than reality, and other movies have been more accurate, and less racist. But the song remains, better than the movie, always stirring haunting personal memories, and a memorial for brave men who died.

Thus today's return to watercolor.

"Twas so good to be young then
To be close to the earth
Now the green leaves of summer
Are calling me home."

Green leaves of Oklahoma--watercolor

Oklahoma's Green Leaves of Summer, Watercolor, 5 by 7 300 lb. d'Arches

                        "The green leaves of summer
                        Are calling me home
                        Twas so good to be young then
                        In the season of plenty"
                                                --Green Leaves of Summer
Summertime...and the living is sometimes easy, and almost always hot, in Oklahoma, but the song that catches our lush, verdant  season most more me is the haunting "The Green Leaves of Summer."
I first heard the song long ago, as part of the soundtrack for the movie "The Alamo," and I still have that original 33 1/3 record (now called vinyl).
For me,  a Texas native, watching the glorified, but still poignant movie about the Texas shrine, the song captured the longing of all warriors facing death for the plentiful security of past summers when the world was simpler. 
Ever since, when I hear that song, I get a little teary eyed with the memories of those long ago summers, of youth long gone, and of  men who knew they were going to die against impossible odds.
Here's the summer version of my Oklahoma watercolor series, lush green fields, gentle summer rain, life's promise for the future, even with death always in our presence in the metaphorical old barn.

(Day 12, WorldWatercolorMonth challenge)
(The Brothers Four sang the song, soundtrack by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. )

Palette--Prussian blue, Cobalt blue, Burnt and Raw umber, Auereolin yellow, Cadmium red, True green, Thalo green

https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=JjKU1J82y_g