Green … the most restful color for the human eye.  

The origin of the word green is said to go back to the old Teutonic root (ancient Germanic tribes) ‘gro’ meaning to grow. Green is the color of life, of plants, of spring, of renewal, of triumph – a symbol of hope and immortality.  

In ancient Greece green symbolized victory, in the highlands of Scotland it was a mark of honor, and in ancient Egypt, the floors of temples were colored green. But, women being women – ingenious and creative, always looking at the details in life which make life (and them) somehow more beautiful – in an ancient Egypt women were not satisfied with mere temples with green floors, they went one step further. They took raw pieces of the semiprecious stone Malachite (one of the oldest known semiprecious stones to mankind, along with Lapis Lazuli), they grinded it into a powder, mixed it with egg white, acacia resin or fig milk and created a deep emerald green eye shadow!  

However, green was not always good. Although dragons, green colored creatures that they are, had positive connotations in ancient Chinese philosophy - thus green represented the divine power of change, of supernatural wisdom and strength - this positive symbol was reversed in Christianity and the dragon became a monster of evil and destructive powers. Christian demons were dragon-like creatures with green skin and green eyes, they spat deadly venom and emanated the smell of Hell; the devil hunting lost souls was dressed in green. 

The discovery of the pigment emerald (Schweinfurt green) in 1800 didn’t help at all! Emerald was prepared from verdigris and copper arsenite, this created a very deadly and poisonous paint - the green wallpaper in Napoleon’s exile home in St. Helena become his undoing. It is said that his premature death was not the work of someone who poisoned him but the result of the noxious fumes emanating from the bright green wallpaper. 

Someone recently reminded me that people just happen to give things a name, and everyone else associates many emotions, thoughts and images with that name. What if the color green was named blue? Would that change the properties of the color? How would that change our perspective? I can imagine a blue garden, blue money, potting seedlings bluehouse and saying “Go ahead - all systems are blue!” 

Perhaps we would never know .. because blue would be green! 

Color is color .. and color is beautiful. Kandinsky, one of the greatest abstract painters of our time, once said: Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings.  

After all: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”

Enjoy! 

Fadwa

Posted in: Words to Design By by Fadwa /