The green of spring is lighter and has more yellow to it. Even the pines and firs have new tips that are lighter and brighter, giving them a more dimensional look than at other times of the year, when the dark green is more bluish. It's a friendly shade, as if reflecting the increase of sunshine.
There's one more thing that I've noticed about spring green. The fact that the leaves are not yet full-sized means that there's still lots of light shimmering through the branches. Later, the shade makes the deeper green look even darker.
At this time of the year, I am acutely aware of green. In the summer, it becomes a backdrop for the other colors of flowers, and gets taken for granted. I love the changing seasons - they make me see the same things every year as if they were brand new. Including green.
I'm reminded of Tolkien's wonderful words in The Lord of the Rings:
He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful.
3 comments:
Nice thoughts about spring green! :)
In fact this is my very favourite colour: "Ich hab das Grün so gern"! (Schubert: "Die liebe Farbe")
Apropos Tolkien: This must be the colour of the Elfstone (Elessar) because in U.T. it is mentioned that the Elf who created the first Elessar in Gondolin "loved all green things that grew, and his greatest joy was to see the sunlight through the leaves of trees."
I'm glad that everything in my garden is growing, but I'm less enthusiastic about all the weeds growing faster than anything else, especially the lesser celandine (Scharbockskraut) has covered all the primulas and scillas and has gotten totally out of hand, because I was too lenient the preceding years.
So I have spent hours and hours pulling out weeds these last days, my back hurts and my hands are scratched from the roses. *sigh*
I suppose you have a garden, too?
I must protest this fracturing of the light into greens and yellow greens and blue greens and dark greens and spring greens. Why, next you will be telling us that strawberries ought to remain green! And blueberries should never be blue. And then where will it all stop? One colour to rule them all? *shudders*
Actually, green is not a favorite color of mine. I don't wear it, I don't live in it, and though emerald is supposed to be my birth month jewel, it's one I neither like nor own.
However, green in nature is something completely different, especially the friendly green of this season. I do, however, prefer my fruits ripe, thank you!
Yes, we have a garden - not what the Americans would call a garden, which would have vegetables and other edibles, but what Germans call a garden and Americans a yard. Lots of lawn, flowers and bushes around the edges, and a few trees that have grown enough to provide shade on these warm, sunny days.
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