he imagined vividly ( but couldnt see ) the ecosystem springing to life at ground level where the sun had warmed the soil and humus , where grasses , weeds , flowers , and seedlings of every type were bursting forth in riotous life , all racing to absorb and transform the new unadulterated sunlight into chlorophyll and more growth to produce more chlorophyll and more growth before the leaves higher in the canopy unfurled and stole that sunlight long before it reached the ground .