The color green. Often identified as a secondary color, a mixture of yellow with blue or cyan. The complementary color of red. Or scientifically, a perception of which is produced by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometers. But these are not the ways to interpret the color green. Getting a deeper insight of the color will show you that it is more than meets the eyes.
Further studies into the color green will tell you that, it is not just what it is being commonly identified as. All over the world, the color green is being used as a tool, a symbol emotionally, spiritually and culturally. The color green can be a very effective weapon on emotions if used well. The color itself can represent and in many occasions, trigger various emotions. Green triggers the following positive emotions: hope, growth, good health, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsiveness. Its negative attributes are envy, greed, constriction, guilt, jealousy and disorder. (Understanding Color Emotion Triggers, Part 1A 1994-2006)
A study conducted shows that different tones of green actually cast a different emotion on different types of people. In this study, ten teenagers of age ranged between 16-20 were shown three images that are plainly filled with different tones of green. The first one to be a dark tone of green, the second a light, fluorescent green and lastly a murky olive green, the teenagers involved in the study gave different emotional reactions for each color that was shown to them. For dark green, it gave the teenagers the feeling of being in a forest, calm, nature, dirt, gloomy and mood less, evil, peace, tranquility, somber, cold and stress, moody. On the other hand, the light/ fluorescent green evokes sickness, shock and surprise, aggressiveness, cheerful, refreshing feelings in the teenagers. A couple of teenagers have actually find it sharp, annoying, blinding and disliked it. One particular student who is studying architecture found it sustainable and supportive. And lastly, the olive green. It triggered feelings like youth, energy and life, growth and plants, peace, harmony, calm, mellow, meaningful, and soothing. One teenager found it surprisingly to be containing mysterious elements and evoked a somewhat curious feeling in her. While on another note, the architecture student found the color durable. And another teenager found it especially calming and stated that it is very eye catching and that she would stare at it for a long period of time. The study showed that the tone of a color determines the positive or negative messages it sends, how people look at it and how it attracts likes and dislikes. It also showed that a person’s profession or interest also affects the way they interpret the color. For example, the architecture student who find the colors relating to the feeling of support and solitude in a way. Giving his profession is based on buildings and infrastructures, his perceptions on the colors were somehow influenced by the ideas instilled in him through all the studies on architecture.
With the color’s ability to grasp and evoke emotions, it is evident that it is widely used as a tool for promotion, sales encouraging and crowd attracting for business and a tool for calming down emotions, soothing people’s feelings and promoting peace. Color is a meaningful constant for sighted people and it's a powerful psychological tool. By using color psychology, you can send a positive or negative message, encourage sales, calm a crowd, or make an athlete pump iron harder. (Psychology of Color n.d.) Certain restaurants tend to the paint their exterior or interior with a soothing tone of green as it gives their customer a warm and soothing feeling of being in a forest and therefore savor their dishes better. But they have to be careful while choosing the tones because certain tones of green can also represents evil and sickness. If a customer takes his/her meal when being covered by fluorescent green paints, it is unavoidable that he/she would have minimal appetite and for some people, a stomach wrenching sensation. Other than that, as a calming green is very soothing to the sense, certain hospitals tend to use light green rooms because they too are found to be calming to patients. (Psychology of Color n.d.) Helping in the rejuvenation of the hospital’s patients.
As of the current hype of global warming across the world. The green’s association with nature is now used widely as a term referring to environmentally friendly produce or practices. (Norman 2009) You will find posters promoting recycling (very evidently, the worldwide symbol of recycling.), taking care of Mother Nature filled with (or at the very least have an element of) the color green all over it. In the marketing industry, green can also represent wealth, money, affluences and capitalism. Due to the color of the United States banknotes. (Norman 2009) So it is notable that most businessmen would associate their company with the color green. For example: Starbucks, The Body Shop and Spritzer. As hypothetically for a spiritual superstition they may have thought that the fact that green represents wealth may help their business prosper. The color green may also be a very approving factor in the packaging of products. Packaging is a very important marketing strategy to glamorize your product in order to attract the consumer’s attention. Most consumers judge a product by its packaging before buying. So it is logical to say attractive packaging is crucial in order to get the first time buyers to buy your products. (Kam 2007) Therefore choosing the right tone of green in certain packaging may give the product the extra boost of attractiveness.
In terms of spirituality, the color green is also used in many different aspects. As a note, the color green signifies health, tranquility, peace and calmness, harmony, renewal and life itself. Therefore it is no surprise to find people in the process of spiritual healing using green as a healing tool itself. Similar to the idea used for the green room a room in theater or televisions sets where performers and guests go to relax, being surrounded by green calms down the senses and therefore people will find it easier to concentrate and focus on whatever they are doing. Researchers have also found out that green can improve reading ability. Some students may find that laying a transparent sheet of green paper over reading material increases reading speed and comprehension. (Van Wagner n.d.) One may find reading, studying or working in a greenish environment like a garden or a green room may help boost their work rate and effectively reduce the stress that comes along with the work since green is thought to relieve stress.
The color green also has a relatively vast involvement in cultures all over the world. For an instance, In Celtic myths the Green man was the God of fertility. (Morton n.d.) Therefore the color green has ever since been a symbol of fertility. And in the 15th Century the color green was once the preferred color choice for wedding gowns (Van Wagner n.d.) There is also a very odd belief that anyone who chooses a green m & m (an American candy which contains an assortment of different colored chocolate sweets) is sending a somewhat sexual message. Green has been reinterpreted by late 20th century American culture to signify a state of heightened sexuality in this specific situation. (Morton n.d.) This was most probably stirred up by the slight connection the color green has with fertility.
Another widely known connection between green and culture is most probably the association of The Republic of Ireland and the color green. Although it was stated that the actual national color of the country is St. Patrick’s blue, the country seemed to have more associations with the color green. This is perhaps due to the very green landscape of rural Ireland, which led Irish poets to describe Ireland as the "Emerald Isle." Also, to introduce Christianity to Ireland, St. Patrick used a shamrock (which is green), and in the late 1700s when Ireland was struggling for independence, "green" was worn as a color of sympathy for the Irish cause to such a degree that wearing the color green was outlawed around 1776. This history seems to have created an eternal association between Ireland and the color "green". (Meradeuw 2008) It is also notable that many people tend to visualize St. Patrick as a man dressed in green suits. This in reality was not true.
The Islamic world has also deemed green as a very important color. It is noticeable that majority of mosques’ decorations are green in color. Bindings of Qurans with green. Traditional clothing in green. Even the flags of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian group Hamas include the color green in them. But why is the color green so strongly associated with the Islamic world? There are several argued reasons. And among them are that green was supposedly Mohammed's favorite color. The father of Islam, the Islamic of prophet is said to have worn a green cloak and turban, and his writings are full of references to the color green. A passage from the Quran describes paradise as a place where people "will wear green garments of fine silk." One hadith, or teaching, says, "When Allah's Apostle died, he was covered with a Hibra Burd," which is a green square garment. Another reason is that it is a symbol of nature and life, especially potent in the dry desert. Mohammed invoked this connection when he wrote about a folkloric figure called al-Khidr, or "the Green One," who symbolizes immortality. There is also a speculation that because green is in the middle of the color spectrum and Mohammed preached moderation, one complements the other. (Beam 2009)
One of the most popular associations the color green has with is definitely the Christmas colors. Being coupled with red, people all over the world would have recognized it immediately as Christmas colors. All these while, people have always assumed that the green among the two Christmas colors were originally ideas originated from the color of Santa Claus’ elves, Christmas trees or holiday wreaths. But the truth is the origin of the Christmas colors are actually based on Christian faith and historical facts. (Skutelnik 2008) Skutelnik (2008) stated that the color green is a natural representation of eternal life, specifically the evergreen tree and how it survives through the winter season. That’s why, in Christian belief, green represents the eternal life of Jesus Christ. For the historical fact, she stated that back in the 14th Century, churches presented Miracle Plays—religious plays used to educate the illiterate public. Traditionally on December 24, the church presented The Paradise Play, the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. And in place of an apple tree—as they weren’t available in winter—they fastened apples to the branches of a pine tree. Using a pine to represent the Tree of Good and Evil became a common practice among churches and they began incorporating the tree into their Christmas displays each year. But it didn’t stop there. Following the church’s example, people began assembling pine trees in their homes and decorating them with red apples. This act introduced two modern traditions: the Christmas tree and our seasonal colors, green for the pine tree and red for the apples.
All in all, it is very intriguing to see how enormously vast the color green is being interpreted by every culture. How it plays so many different roles emotionally, spiritually and culturally all across the world. How it has the ability of healing, relieving stress and calm down senses that we human so often needed these days. And the uses of the color green can just go on and on. And the thing here is, by seeing how green is being used and interpreted in so many perspectives and histories, it really makes you wonder: is green really just a color?
written by Ryan Ng Hsien Yoong. August 03 2009
Completely written by me. With help of various resources of course.
I know, 2000 of pure hard Lucida Sans Unicode materials on nothing but green alone.
If you did digest all 2000 words in that academic writing into ur head, congratulations. You have just overcame ultimate boredom. But if you dont, I understand. :D
Finished this at 7:30am earlier. Am going to pass it up at college now. And then I'll come home, and sleep like there's nobody's business.
See ya.
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