Gathering Leaves as a project, began as a labor of love over ten years ago, but the work that it represents actually started nearly thirty years ago. For eight nights in January 1977, the ABC television network aired the granddaddy of all mini-series, "ROOTS", and the American viewers stayed glued to their television sets to watch the story of Kinte Kunte, an enslaved African brought forcibly to America, and the story of his descendants as told by Alex Haley. This memorable program's last episode had the highest rating of any single-episode ever aired. Despite the criticism that has been leveled against Mr. Haley that stem from charges that he plagiarized large portions of Roots from another author and that parts of Roots which Haley claimed were true turned out to be fictional, his efforts to tell the history of his family were then and still are to this day an inspiration to me.