A lemon. It’s a citrus fruit whose juice is acidic and can be used to conduct electricity for motors. A car or other purchase that has problems is known as a lemon and can be expensive to repair. Lemons have a tart flavor but do little harm (unless you get it in a cut, then it hurts like the dickens). The old saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” (I know, it’s spelled aid not ade but it sounds the same and wouldn’t make any sense the other way. It all works out nicely when the riddle is told instead of read.)
Pronounced as one letter, And written with three, Two letters there are, And two only in me. I’m double, I’m single, I’m black, blue, and gray, I’m read from both ends, And the same either way.
Eye. It’s pronounced like the letter ‘i’, but written with three letters. There are only two letters used (‘e’ and ‘y’). The eye is double with two ‘e’s and represents a single eye. The eye is made up of various colors, some of which are black, blue and gray. And lastly, the eye is a palindrome, spelled the same forward and backward.
A harvest sown and reaped on the same day In an unplowed field, Which increases without growing, Remains whole though it is eaten Within and without, Is useless and yet The staple of nations.
This is becomes a self-referential paradox. Both A and D would be correct if there were four unique answers, but since A and D are the same answer, the chance that you would choose a correct answer is 50%, which makes B correct. But if there’s only one correct answer, the odds of choosing the correct one at random goes back to 25%. And around and round you go.
I see much but change little, I am firm, irresolute, Powerful but gentle, I can rip apart mountains, Yet be moved by gentle stirrings, I am valued and wasted, I am life itself, And I give life to others.
A tree. A tall one can see long distances but don’t change much. They are strong and powerful, and the roots of a tree can slowly tear apart a mountain. The gentle stirrings of the wind can blow their branches and leaves. Trees are valuable as they provide wood and paper, but they are also wasted. And lastly, trees, like all plants, provide us with life-giving oxygen.