In his novel The Last Leaf, O.Henry tells a story about a sick man lying in a hospital bed looking desperately out the window at a desolate tree swept by the autumn wind. He suddenly found that on that tree, there was actually a green leaf that had not fallen. The patient thought that when the leaves fell, my life would be over. So he looked at the leaf all day, waiting for it to fall, and quietly waiting for the end of his life. However, the leaf did not fall until the patient's body was fully restored, and the leaf was still as green as emerald.
In fact, there were no leaves on the tree, the leaves were painted by a painter, it was not a real leaf, but it achieved the vivid and real effect of the real leaf, giving the patient a strong belief: to live, as long as the leaf does not fall, my life will not die. As a result, he actually recovered and went out of the ward to see what was going on under the tree.
He stood under the tree and was touched by the painter's intentions.
Because the painter is the only one who knows his inner secrets, the painter knows that he waits for all the leaves to fall before quietly ending his life. So, the painter designed such a fake leaf according to the patient's mind. It was this fake leaf that gave him the courage to live continuously.
What really has vitality is not the leaf, but the belief of man.