Dead Leaves

First: judges are to artists as pigeons are to statues. Second: although the colors are good and the subject representation excellent, I get no "feeling" in the manner of some of your other images. Composition seems OK but maybe somewhat contrived? I'm sure it is not, but....

Judges are good, judges are bad, judges are indifferent, judges are... well take what they say with a healthy dose of a grain of salt. And take what we say with an open ear for advise, not doctrine.
With all that said, what I find just average about this shot is that the lighting is somewhat dull - too even. A little stronger or dynamic lighting would help. I am assumong that the scan of the slide is responsible for its (apparent) lack of sharpness because I know the lens you used is sharp.
My $0.02
gene