I have a hard time answering questions like “What’s your favorite food?” or “What’s your favorite song?” or “What’s your most embarrassing moment?”* My mind, which certainly follows its own path, doesn’t prefer to categorize things.

However, if I ever am asked about my favorite color, I would say it’s the bright yellow of fall cottonwood trees in New Mexico, especially the way that from a distance you can spot a meandering river – even you can’t otherwise tell there even is a river – by looking at the golden leaves, and also the way when the light’s low it takes on the glow from the leaves and ( and!) the leaves also look beautiful when viewed from an open window on the third floor of an historic hotel in a mountain town.

“Yellow” would also be correct but fails to convey what I mean.

Plaza Hotel (and the plaza)
Las Vegas, New Mexico
photographed 9.8.2025

*I really DON’t know what my most embarrassing moment is. For one thing, many things are in contention. And also, if I did remember, do you really think I’d disclose it here?