Autumn in New York City, U.S.A.

Autumn in New York City is, to my mind, the most beautiful season of the year. Early in the morning I walk through Central Park without haste, savouring each step as the foliage glows beneath the first rays of the sun. It is a spectacle I have encountered nowhere else in the world — one that seems to belong less to ordinary reality than to the canvases of the great masters.

Autumn foliage in Central Park set against the skyline of New York City. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis

Yet this enchanting vision does not dissolve into the distance. My gaze does not rest solely upon the golden-green canopy; it moves beyond it, rising to meet the skyscrapers that stand guard around the park. They remind me that this city is, above all, a place of ceaseless dynamism. Its architecture follows a squared and disciplined logic, radiating a formidable energy which, in the stillness of the early morning, seems almost to descend from the heavens and spread through the countless box-like offices whose lights gradually fade as daylight prevails.

Grand Army Plaza on Fifth Avenue, New York, with the Plaza Hotel and its gilded statue. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis

Slowly, I leave the park behind, continuing my walk unhurried and undisturbed by the growing bustle of New Yorkers who, as the morning advances, begin to fill the pavements of Fifth Avenue. Almost instinctively, I raise my eyes to the skyscrapers above me. The sensation is strangely reminiscent of standing before the vast cathedrals of Europe, with their soaring spires and mysterious arches. In New York, however, one senses little spirituality; what emerges instead is a powerful display of worldly grandeur. These are the temples of high finance — no less mysterious in their own way — and they draw the eye with an irresistible force.

The author on Central Park West during the Thanksgiving parade, surrounded by marching bands and balloons

Yet beside this imposing and impersonal architecture, thrusting its massive forms towards the sky, appears the fragile beauty of nature, restoring a sense of measure to the scene. The bare branches of the autumn trees — delicate, almost playful — recall the landscapes of Chinese painters. They compel me to pause and look again, suddenly aware that the trees seem to dance everywhere. Serene and untroubled, they rise beside the skyscrapers in quiet harmony, forming an unexpected and graceful duet between nature and the modern city.

Embark on a journey with my Books in English

YouTube video: New York in autumn: https://youtu.be/SAwidoNK7k8