See Also: FLOWERS, NATURE, TREES

1. Aspen and poplar leaves covered the road like yellow snow —Susan Engberg
2. The dirty leaves were hanging down from the [rain-wet] trees like dead bats —Josephine Tey
3. Dry leaves blew across the sidewalk like arched spiders —Joan Hess
4. Dry leaves chatter like a children’s brigade —Diane Ackerman
5. A few leaves had fallen and lay like neglected toys on the grass —Carolyn Slaughter
6. The forest leaves moved like small rustling animals over the moss —Hayden Carruth
7. The last leaves of some sultry September hung stiffly, like leaves pressed between the pages of an old catechism —Nelson Algren
8. Leaves as light and agitated as swarms of little butterflies that hovered above the clover —Willa Cather
9. Leaves as limp as soiled money —George Garrett
10. Leaves delicately veined as a baby’s hands —W. P. Kinsella
11. Leaves digest sun as men and women eat each other to love —Daniela Gioseffi
12. Leaves drooped (over white frame houses) like hands —James Reiss
13. Leaves fallen like wet rags —Bernard Malamud
14. The leaves … fall off the branches by the hundreds, like paratroopers from their planes —David Ignatow
15. Leaves fell like notes from a piano —Derek Walcott
16. Leaves fell like rejected brown stars —John Rechy
17. The leaves fly up like birds —Conrad Aiken
18. Leaves hanging down like tongues —Jean Thompson
19. Leaves hissing and steaming like kettles —Philip Levine
20. Leaves … hung lustreless, like drying tea-dregs —Julia O’Faolain
21. Leaves … large as a lady’s apron —Caroline Finkelstein
22. Leaves … like a soggy blanket … covered gutter, sidewalk, lawn, backyard, bushes and alley —Bernard Malamud
23. Leaves like green lace —George Garrett
24. Leaves like ruffled wavelets —Sylvia Berkman
25. Leaves like scarlet hands floated on the green slow water —Truman Capote
26. The leaves of the red maples glowed like fruit —Jean Thompson
27. The leaves paled and fell from the shedding trees like old wishes —George Garrett
28. Leaves peep out so fresh and green, so pure and bright, like young lives pushing shyly out into the bustling world —Jerome K. Jerome
29. Leaves rattled dryly together, like scales of metal —Aldous Huxley
30. Leaves scatter and point to every part of the sky, like famished fingers waving —Richard Wilbur
31. (A giant tree which bore) leaves shaped like fans —Anaĩs Nin
32. The leaves sift down one by one like notes in music —May Sarton
33. The leaves that a few days before had been green now dropped like heat-withered cellophane —Wallace Stegner
34. The leaves turn and twist in the wind as if quarreling with one another —David Ignatow
35. The leaves were motionless on the trees, as if they were resting in the heat —Willis Johnson
36. Leaves, wrinkled or shiny like apples —Frank O’Hara
37. Some of its [a plant’s] leaves had turned black and were curled up like charred Christmas ribbons —Margaret Millar
38. Yellow leaves like lamps of gold —John Greenleaf Whittier
39. The yellow leaves swam through the air as silently as fish —Jean Thompson
40. The young leaves were still soft and slack … less like leaves than like petals, and drooping in the sweet forest-air like seaweeds in deep water —Isak Dinesen