Maple Leaves Swallowed by Storm Drain in Ghent

Sunlight breaks through lingering clouds over the concrete overpass in Sint-Pieters, Ghent, illuminating a circular steel storm drain grate. Bright orange and yellow maple leaves, scattered across the wet gray asphalt, slide toward the dark metal bars. Water glistens on the surface, reflecting the soft afternoon sky while a few droplets rest on the rusted edges of the grate. The heavy iron bars cast sharp, parallel shadows across the damp pavement, creating a grid pattern that traps the colorful foliage. In the background, the geometric lines of the interchange infrastructure stretch into the distance, showing the scale of the urban drainage system against the small, drifting leaves caught in the flow.