Found in the Bin : Generation of Leaves

Lytle hwile leaf beoth grene;

Thonne hie fealewiath, feallath on eorthan

and forweorniath, weorthath to duste.

My notes say: ...found in an Old Eng. text, cited as from "Solomon and Saturn.”

A little while the leaves are green,

then they yellow, fall to earth

and perish, turn to dust.

The author must have been channeling this:

The generation of mankind is like the generation of leaves. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the living tree burgeons with leaves again in the spring.

Homer, Iliad 6.146-148

Richmond Lattimore trans. (slightly revised)