by L. G. William Chapman, B.A., LL.B.
When it comes to those pesky “security questions” on the internet, if I am prompted to answer “What is your favourite colour” I respond blue. The colour blue holds for me a percentage of stock, the colour of the sky on a favourable day, the colour of the ocean when refracted by sunbeams and the colour of sapphires (which, when mixed with the translucent colour of diamonds is for me an overwhelmingly appealing combination especially if pooled with the toughness of a platinum setting). By contrast to this fondness for blue, one of the most memorable stories I have ever read (and shamefully I can’t even remember its title or its theme) included a dark green two-seater automobile (and the protagonist smoking a briar pipe) – and pointedly for the story (whatever it was) – there was a matching green door to the house which figured in the unfolding drama. The colour green demanded considerable attention. It meant something, it was a symbol and it was elemental. It played a part in whatever happened in the ensuing account (though I cannot recall its significance).
That particular experience – I am guessing – must have occurred when I was no more than seventeen years old. Yet it has haunted me to this day. I have never fully reconciled its significance (as though “green’ is somehow part of my life’s experience). I am quite aware that it may mean nothing at all. Yet the mysterious import of the colour green has lingered, projecting itself into my current dialect. I have, for example, since purchased dark green leather sofas and matching chairs and ottoman. As well, the door to my house is green (actually, it is unusually a highly polished cobalt green metal door, the product of a local automobile collision centre).
Colours are not something which would or should attract everyone. But to thoughtful people colours matter a great deal. Colours may even define an ambiance or a relationship. No one can deny the effervescence of a sunny day, the yellow sunshine and the dazzling blue sky. By comparison, I have always maintained that, no matter where you are on the face of this earth, if it is raining, it’s raining and the timbre of the day is diminished. Colours are the zing of our vision.
