KekahJ Week 97: Colors

KekahJ
Wednesday

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KekahJ's Choice: Both

Title: Colors

Colors can evoke such strong emotions. There are happy colors like orange and red and bright, sunny yellow. Those are the colors that, when you see them, make you want to smile. They’re used in advertising to send a message of cheer and joy.

Then there’s colors like purple and blue that make you take a deep breath and let it out slowly while you reflect on your life. They’re calming, mellow colors.

Then there are the colors that seem sort of neutral; greens and browns and and lots of shades of white. Those ones seem to take on the mood of whatever color they’re paired with. Sort of like chameleon colors.

Isn’t it fascinating how colors can send such a strong message? Or how they can trigger such intense memories? Take green, for example. Whenever I see a particular tint of green, I can’t help but be reminded of my grandma’s old kitchen floor. It was made up of this green linoleum with flecks of gold in it, and I remember spending hours playing on that floor while grandma stood at the kitchen sink doing any number of tasks; snipping beans, washing dishes, cooking dinner; always humming a tuneless song while she worked.

And the color pink? There’s a certain shade that always reminds me of my first boyfriend. He brought me a single pink carnation on our first date. He gave it to me, palms sweating, hands shaking, and I thought that he hung the moon and stars. For years afterwards, long after our relationship had bloomed and faded, that carnation hung upside down on the mirror on my dresser. The brilliant pink had faded to a soft, dusty shade, but I didn’t throw it out until I went away to college.

Then there’s the color gray. It always reminds me of drizzly, rainy days. The ones where the sky looks like it’s been wrapped in someone’s old gray nightgown; the fuzzy flannel kind. Gray reminds me of curling up in front of a crackling fire with a good book while the wind outside whips the branches against the window. But no matter how dark the gray sky turns, I’m safe inside my nice warm house.

Colors are amazing. Nothing else can set a mood or convey an emotion as quickly or efficiently. What would it be like to live in a world without color? To live without the brilliant blues and sparkling purples; or soft pinks and deep sensual reds? Things just wouldn’t be the same.