Indigo has been with us for thousands of years but it was Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century who used the term ‘indigo’ to describe a colour when he demonstrated that the white light was composed of 7 visible colours, indigo being one of them. Until then, the word ‘indigo’ was used for the dye, desired by many. The dye was made from a plant called Indigofera Tinctoria, which had been cultivated predominantly in Asia and parts of Africa; some sources mention Peru as well.

“Blue is the favourite colour of all people”, was the first sentence I came across when researching for this article. “Hold on”, I was thinking, “My favourite colour is green”. Then I opened my Address Book where I keep notes about my friends’ favourite things (as an inspiration for birthdays or Christmas or “whatever-else" gifts) and started laughing. Blue is the favourite colour of all friends I had this info available for!