I love your story and can imagine how wonderful the illustrated version could be. The colors are just dancing in my head! There are a couple of things you might think about. It would be nice if you could show a reason why pulling the carrot is like pulling the plug on the colors of the world. One idea I have is that this might be the last carrot of the garden that she has tried and tried to pull. There is an old saying that we should leave the corners of our field for the hungry stranger. Maybe this could be the tie in? The only other comment I have is about the word "vortex". I wonder if a more descriptive word for children might be found. Whirl wind and tornado are of course both good ones. When I was little, I thought quick sand and whirlpools were the bomb.  Good luck!