Life, colors, and the burning ciggarette.

Oxygen is the matter that we need. But at the same time, it is killing our cells, it makes us getting older. It seems to work like a burning cigarette. Fast or slow it burn would not matter when that flame goes out, and we would already be in the first place before we were born. However, the question might be that when we have gone, are we gonna left the ashes or the colors?