A number of years ago I had to select a new template for this humble Yorkshire blog. I was drawn to a green format - the colour of nature and environmental campaigning. Though I have only ever voted for The Labour Party (red), it pleases me that green pressure groups have gained more traction over the years - not just on this island but around the world.
In the chart above, there are twenty greens each with their own names though some greens are very similar. If I went for a walk in woodland or across meadows and then by a river, I might observe all of these greens...
GREEN
Deep in an army green forest
The undergrowth had an asparagus hue
Turning to emerald in shafts of sunlight
Or fern and forest green by my leafy path.
Up ahead, a clearing appeared harlequin
Against hunter green shadows.
Departing from those verdant woods, jade
Turned to kelly green then lime
And mint as sunlit meadows came into view
Reaching to a moss coloured river
That oozed between olive banks
And over pine green river weed
Dancing in shamrock shallows.
All along that sea green way I rambled -
Spring green grasses swaying
Against teal coloured hillocks rolling
Under an almost turquoise sky -
Leaving the viridian forest far behind.
I was just playing around with those colour chart names. It was merely a poetic exercise to see what happened. Sage, khaki and bottle-green are examples of green words that were not included in the chart.
I am just green with envy!
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean ivy?
DeleteI asked Edna O'Brien to describe the colour of her eyes and she said, 'Grey, like your own, love.'
ReplyDeleteBut Edna's eyes looked emerald green as she sat in her Chelsea home.
And my eyes are light blue like my father's.
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge has green eyes like Jennifer Connelly (Once Upon A Time in America) and Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart and Julianne Moore.
Young Julianne Peterson has very blue eyes.
Listen to her on YouTube singing Gentle On My Mind, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and La Vie En Rose.
Interesting that you mentioned "Once Upon A Time in America". I must get round to watching that again. When I first saw it I thought it was quite brilliant.
Delete*Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Jennifer Connelly Kiss Scene.*
DeleteYouTube.
Dante meeting Beatrice.
Jennifer was 11 when she was cast.
My late brother said of her, 'She is so intelligent she might be Canadian.'
*A House of Sand and Fog* (2003) - with Ben Kingsley.
*Dark Water* (2005) - she is a single mother of a little girl.
Edna O'Brien wrote the screenplay of *The Girl With Green Eyes* 1964.
Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave and the classically trained Julian Glover.
Filmed in black & white.
And there's quite a few songs about green or with green in them.
ReplyDelete"Green Grow The Rushes-O!", "Greensleeves"... Ask Jean to sing them to you.
DeleteI love a good green, in both color and the way you move through the world.
ReplyDeleteIn England, The Green Man is an important figure in our mythology.
DeleteGreen was my Mom's favorite color. When my family had a home built in 1966, it had celery green carpet in the living room with avocado green carpeting upstairs. We thought it was so very fancy! Celery and avocado - 2 more greens that aren't on that chart. I like how you wove all of those colors into your writing, Neil.
ReplyDeleteI can picture celery and avocado colours in my head. I guess any could be challenged Ellen.
DeleteIs it still a poem if it doesn't have any rhyme? it's good anyway, but I have issues with the colour chart. The "pine green" looks just like the teal for a start and some of the others don't match what I think of as certain shades.
ReplyDeleteI also have issues with this chart. Oh and there are no rules for poetry. Rhyme still has a role to play but sometimes it is inappropriate.
DeleteThat was an interesting mental exercise, I liked it and the mental images it produced for me. Also interesting how I personally would include some of those greens rather on a chart of blues than of greens, but I have learned long ago that we all see colours slightly differently and therefore, my blue could easily be the next person's green.
ReplyDeleteTo me turquoise certainly belongs with the blue family of colours.
DeleteViridian was a green I did not know. Trivia; here tramway officers used to wear green and were known as Kellys.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that is where the name kelly green comes from Andrew.
DeleteI would like to have had a car painted in British Racing Green. Leaf green used to be on the charts.
ReplyDeleteCharts vary and so do the names. Give me a pot of racing green and a brush and I will paint your car for you.
DeleteGreen Door - Shaking Steven's, Jack In The Green - Jethro Tull, Green Day- American Punk band, Limerick Green, Forest Green Rovers, Hughie Green - Opportunity Knocks and " I mean that most sincerely folks"!
ReplyDeleteYou forgot "Eat Your Greens!"
DeleteMy preferred colour for most things is green. My least favourite colour being Orange.
ReplyDeleteGreen is quite a restful colour, Perhaps it is because of its suggestion of all things "Nature".
ReplyDeleteMy favorite greens (and blues and purples and teals and turquoises) are the ones in the sea off of Cozumel, Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see Iowa Green on your chart. It is a bit darker than Forest Green but not quite Hunter Green.
ReplyDeleteHarlequin hurts my eyes, and viridian is not what I thought it was.
ReplyDeleteI still have a pair of wellies in Hunter green!
ReplyDeleteI have always thought your blog was too - well - green, and I told you so before! But its your blog and you can make it "sky blue pink" if you want to. My favourite, of all those you list, is Teal. We have a lot of ducks round here with streaks of teal in their feathers. Lovely! Asparagus green is utterly boring, but the food is delicious and I can't come home from the supermarket without a bunch.
ReplyDelete