Green
Rainbow Of Your Life series
Green is everywhere, it is no longer just a colour. It seems that the colour green has transcended the realm of plants, animals or objects. We are all greener now (thank God). Universally, green is associated with nature and our planet is dependent on our green thinking.
The colour green is really popular – right after blue. To most people, it symbolises growth, fertility, freshness, vitality or youthfulness. It is the colour of the heart chakra and opening this chakra leads to being more loving, compassionate and empathetic.
Like with all colours, green also has negative connotations. Remember saying “green with envy” or “green around the gills” when someone feels sick?
The colour green plays an important role in most religions. In Islam, for instance, it is associated with paradise. For the Christians “green” represents the triumph of life over death. The Buddhists see it as a colour of action. The colour green symbolises happiness, peace and harmony in Hinduism.
In psychology, the colour green is mostly associated with success, reliability, intelligence, health, power and nature. It appears to bring harmony to our brain. The colour green has been used widely all around the world for information and safety signs (similar to the colour red).
Although predominant in nature the colour green was not that easy to reproduce. The ancient Egyptians or Greeks used to make the colour green either by mixing yellow and blue pigments or using pigment from malachite. It was the ancient Romans who managed to make green colour “in volume”. They developed a method of making green pigment by soaking copper plates in wine and using the verdigris that developed through this process.
If you read our last article “Blue” from the “Rainbow of your life” series”, you may remember that even the ocean may appear green where there is a lot of phytoplankton (full of green pigment chlorophyll in it).
Chlorophyll is also responsible for the green colour of plants. In the animal world, on the other hand, it is more about mixing yellow and blue like, for example, by the reflection of blue light coming through a pigment of yellow.
Chlorophyll is truly amazing. It is light that causes the reduction of chlorophyll, i.e. it makes chlorophyll lose an electron which leads to oxidation of water and creation of the well-known O2 – oxygen. We all learnt about photosynthesis at school. It is a process in which plants and also algae and certain bacteria use sunlight to turn light into food (carbohydrates) they need for survival. Oxygen is the by-product so much needed by life on Earth.
Chlorophyll can mask other colours. As we mentioned in one of our last articles, there are “reds”, “purples” or “yellows’ in leaves but they are covered by chlorophyll. It is only when the time of daylight gets shorter and the air gets cooler that the leaves slow down the production of “food” and as the chlorophyll breaks down, the other colours appear.
Coming back to plants, nobody doubts anymore that eating lots of green vegetables is good for us. Green foods with their anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties are also packed with vitamins and minerals. They support the health of our brain, heart and liver.
Many people go to the gym and drink lots of protein drinks to get strong muscles. The time has finally come when even the medical doctors started mentioning the power of diet in overall health and fitness. Backed by scientific research, eating just one cup of leafy greens could boost muscle function. Off to the gym and a huge leafy green salad for a meal...
The green light represents wavelengths between 495–570 nm. People with the dark-adapted eye are more sensitive to the blue-green colour of about 507 nm and those with the light-adapted eye are most sensitive to the yellow-green colour of about 555 nm.
Based on scientific studies it seems that green light supports sleep while blue light (TV, mobile phones etc.) makes us more alert
The most fitting sentence to close this article is a quote by the English poet Charles Lamb, “I am in love with this green Earth”.
I am too!
If you want to dive a bit deeper and learn how to use colours to your benefit in various aspects of your life (healthy food, work performance, personal appearance, home, outdoor activities), join us at our Rainbow of your life webinar. Check the available dates on our Events page.
2 https://www.artsandcollections.com/
3 https://www.artsandcollections.com/
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
In Nutrition, Can We “See” What Is Good for Us? by Stephen Barnes, Jeevan Prasain, and Helen Kim
5 https://www.livescience.com/
7 https://www.sciencedaily.com/
Green leafy vegetables essential for muscle strength
