Bloody leaves

This is Billy Holiday singing "Strange Fruits," a song that has a reference to "blood on the leaves."

More than a year ago, protestors had gathered in places all across the U.S. to demand the arrest of George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.

The crowds had made references to "blood on the leaves," in tribute to the image of Martin lying prone and lifeless on the grass after he was shot by Zimmerman. 

The lyrics of the song are:

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

The words invoke the grating juxtaposition of a beautiful landscape with the horrors of post-slavery lynching.