I was stuck in traffic behind a refrigerator truck when I noticed the leaf. Since I carry my camera everywhere, I took the shot.

First of all, nice pic...

There are two main reasons this shot works better (IMO) in color. One, it's very monochrome, almost appearing like a split-toned b&w print, so eliminating the color (as you've done in the second image) does not really change the tonality of the scene in an interesting way at all. In fact, the color is what gives this shot its depth.

Second, the small splashes of warm tones near the bottom of the color shot add a nice tension away from the leaf. That effect is completely lost in the bw conversion...

I agree with Steve. And I also like the colour one.

I prefer colour most of the time, but did you wack the contrast up in photoshop?

I like how you have framed this with the lock handle in one corner and the leaf in the opposite corner. I agree with Steves comments, as he put it quite well. The color version looks and feels much better

Well, I am a B&W lover but in this instance the color does fell better. Nice reaction with the camera!

Thank you everyone. CB, B&W is usually my first choice as well, but I was drawn to the color and I simply couldn't let it go.

Ant, I almost always hit the saturation and contrast on my images, whether they need it or not. I'm of Puerto Rican descent and I think that the hot island colors live in my blood! So, I like things vivid and overdone most of the time. But, for once, I left saturation alone. I did increase contrast a but only by an increase of 2 or 3. Since it was a refrigerator truck, the sun was hot, hot, hot on it, so I decreased brightness and so increased contrast a wee bit.

I figured. Any chance of posting the original?

Here's the almost original. I saved it after reducing the brightness without thinking I hadn't been working with layers. Below it you'll see a similar picture of what it kind of looked like before that stupid mistake.