I looked through a bunch of Houzz kitchen photos of natural maple with black counters, and they always seemed to look best with off-white (maybe BM White Dove?) or very pale gray or gray-green walls (Maybe BM Moonshine?). I know that sounds boring, but it highlights the clean modern look of the maple and contrasts with the dark counters. A few examples:

Thanks, my concern is that the cabinets as they aged have taken on more golden colour. The countertops are not solid black, they have small flecks of cream, brown and gold. Is there any other option with respect to colour? I will try to post a couple pictures

Posting photos will always be helpful. There are hundreds of options for color, but you need to decide what effect you are looking for. You might pick a color from one of the flecks in the counters. Or you can even go dark if you want to. Here's a striking dark terra cotta brown with maple cabinets and black counters:

here are a few pictures, if this helps for colour suggestions. thanks

and one more picture, there are a lot of cabinets.

Lovely cabinets. What about a sage green for the walls? I'd also suggest (with apologies, since you didn't ask for advice on this) that when your white appliances eventually need replacing you might want to go with black ones to blend with your counters. The white is a bit stark in the space. Also, I'd be tempted to take down the trim piece over the window, which looks just a bit dated. Clean, simple lines will stay in style longer.

Thanks for the input. The cabinets are 10 yrs old so I do realize there could be some updates. I like the sage green and the moonshine for wall colour.