Green is a full of built-in meanings: growth, renewal, nature, earth. It’s a color that can be difficult; when worn it can draw out certain undertones in people’s skin and make them look sallow. The same goes for home decorating uses as well. Who wants to look even more washed out in the bathroom in the morning? No thanks.
However, green is replenishing and calming, neutral as a backdrop for all things outdoors, plants and animals, even homes. If you’re in the market for a new place to live, you’re probably going to be affected by the state of the yard, which will give you a first impression of the house itself.
This is a pretty old journal page, but I still like what’s going on in it.
Depending on your exposure to medical environments you might have associations with a light green, so often used for scrubs or hospital rooms. In fact, according to the book, Colors for your Every Mood by Leatrice Eiseman:
In 1914, a surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in San Franscisco was disturbed by the glare of the white walls, drapes, towels, sheets and so forth. He chose a lettuce-leaf green to have his operating room painted because it is the complementary (or opposite) to red and pink — the colors of blood. The color rapidly gained popularity. Thousands of surgical suites, uniforms and drapes were eventually colors green…This “eye-ease green” has been scientifically proven to keep the surgeon’s eyes acure to red and pink, to relieve glare, and to be psychologically cool.
That also explains why we see that pale green in school buses and buildings as well — the same color spread to educational environments too.
Green is connected with air, jade, healing, compassion, and the direction east.
There are lots of imperfections with this but I stand by the message.
Is this green or blue? I used both colors, so maybe it’s in the eye of the beholder.
For a mindbending discussion of color and language, including green, check out this book by Guy Deutscher . It talks about early languages and how when analyzed there seems to be a wide spectrum of colors that are never mentioned, and naming objects with colors we would never associate with the object, such as green honey or a wine-dark sea. I won’t give away how he develops the relationship between color and language, but it is fascinating.
Isn’t it interesting to think about colors and why we like or dislike them?
I’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to comment!
I haven’t been very good at tagging colors with #colorfun but I’ll try to do better. Use that hashtag for your colorful pics or tag me @tclmn on Instagram so I’ll be sure to see them!
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