My Favorite Color is Green

Growing up, for as long as I can remember, my mother's favorite color was always green.

Aside from a brief stint around the age of 4 or 5, where I equally paired red and green together - perhaps for my love of Christmas and how special mom always tried to make it - I didn't really see the appeal.

Red and green turned to Crayola's red violet and cerulean, which eventually dropped to just cerulean, with a lean towards blue. There were some years where purple was mildly forced upon me - my aunt's gentle attempt at getting me closer to pink. I don't remember disliking purple, but I also don't recall it truly being my favorite. Eventually began my long-lasting love affair with black. Boy, did mom try to reject that one for many years. Black never left but I began to favor robin's egg blue and deep teals and turquoise - it's funny to recognize the circling back, as the cerulean of my youth bled into my young adulthood in varying shades. While I still have a very deep love for any mixture of blue and green together, I have also allowed blues to fade out and deeper greens to trade in.

Sometimes I wonder if this is from the influence of my mother. It's funny to me how, now that she's no longer present in my life, I share her long-loved favorite color. Perhaps, as she grew to annihilate me with words and resent my existence, I grew to find solace in another mother. The mother that is our earth… nature. Trees and fields and a long expanse of grass around my home. Reconnecting to my childhood roots of outdoor play and exploration, appreciation for the natural beauty of this world began to envelope me. When the fields turn yellow and the trees bare, I too begin to feel dry, worn, and lonely.

So I invite into my home, my wardrobe, my art - the color of nature and the feeling of nurture - green.

May I be wrapped in it like a hug, safe within its walls, overjoyed by the relaxing softness it offers to my life. Thank you mother nature, represented around me by the color green, for being everything my own mother cannot.