Cohesion on a Leaf

I leaned over the porch planter, drawn to two pristine spheres of morning dew resting on a broad nasturtium leaf. Selecting a slender pine needle from the soil, I braced my footing carefully against the terracotta rim. With measured precision, I guided the dry tip against the smaller droplet, nudging it across the waxy surface toward its neighbor. The instant their curved boundaries touched, surface tension snapped the two liquid masses together in a silent, instantaneous pulse. The unified sphere quivered briefly, then settled squarely over the leaf's central junction in flawless symmetry, magnifying the pale veins radiating beneath.