Colors in nature

The world of nature is colorful and bright and human ingenuity cannot hope to match it. Right from the sky above to the sea below, nature abounds in the richness of color. The human eye and the human mind respond to this world of color and identify themselves with it. When a person is cheerful and bright we refer to him as a 'colorful personality', similarly the different colors are used to indicate human moods and attitudes: blue is associated with depression, white is likened with serenity, green with jealousy and red with rage. Color is also used to relieve tension. Psychologists have investigated the effect of colour on the working ability of workers and have come to the conclusion that certain colors are more conducive to Positive thinking than others. Nature fulfils man's longing for color: there is variety in everything. The sky can be clear and blue, it can be dark with clouds, it reflects the glory of the rising sun and the variegated hues of the setting sun. The sea which is normally associated with blue is not really so all the time. The sea water can he blue, green, grey and many more subtle shades and even the rivers and streams reflect the surrounding area and acquire that colour. Coleridge's poem 'The Ancient Mariner' is rich in its description of the world of nature. People who do not observe are not able to notice the finer shades and are consequently not able to enjoy this valuable side of life. In the west, seasonal changes bring in changes in the landscape. While spring is rich with colour, autumn provides a restful view to the eye with its soft browns and ripe greens and winter brings in the whiteness of snow along with its stillness conveying the effect of sleepiness and hibernation. And if on the one hand there is joy and vivacity in spring, there is coolness in the abundance of the green forests, and a challenge in the dark rocks of the mountains and an immensity in the vast, barren stretches of sand. On the question of birds, I have discovered that in their world there are endless color combinations. If green and grey birds mate, the new born chick has a lovely soft green color; if yellow and blue mate the chicks may be either a heightened blue or a softened yellow. No painter's effort can successfully capture the elusive world of nature. Nature's world of color, especially among the animals, has a deeper purpose than there variety. The colour of animals helps them to successfully camouflage themselves. If the toad is brown and mingles with the color of the earth, the frog merges with the green colour of the scum. The polar bear is white but not so the tropical bear. Fishes also have the ability to change colour in order to mingle with their surroundings as do some birds like the willow ptarmigan. Lizards also have different colors according to their surroundings - a desert lizard will be sand-colored while a lizard in a heavy monsoon area will be of greenish hue. Butterflies and insects also share this characteristic. This is not to say that animals and birds do not have bright colors which contrast with their surroundings. This also has a purpose. The bright colors of the peacock are not only a pleasure to the human eye but they also push the peahen into obscurity and offer her greater protection. A male bird may display some brilliant coloration to scare a rival. The Chinese ringnecked pheasant does exactly this, he puffs out his red pouches on the side of his neck when confronted by another male. Thus color does not only give pleasure, it also has a purpose. Imagine life without the color of

nature! It would indeed be dull and monotonous: the sparkle of life will not he there. Color also has brought up problems. The whole problem of racial discrimination is connected with the color of the human skin. Men are hidebound in their narrow beliefs and have not yet learnt to value the variety of color and have not understood nature's purpose behind this.

The Colors of Life Life. It can be measured by many things. The joyful experiences in life like a evening spent with loved ones on a special day or event or watching children as their little eyes glint with excitement as they tear into presents wrapped in pastel green and red on Christmas Day, hoping beyond hope that Santa had made their wish come true. For some people, it is measured by the accomplishments made in life, their life on an endless ladder to total power or control of their life and each day, month and year is just another rung in that ladder. An endless climb upward on the social ladder of their life. Other people don't measure it all, letting the river of life flow over them like an endless river of chances, choices and gifts unimagined slip by them, over them and under them. Never looking around to see the many colors of life. And that is what I measure my life by, the colors of Life. Colors are like emotions, they range from so many things, Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, Dark Ebony and light hearty Pink just like the many emotions in life every one is so diverse and unique in it's own way like Sadness, Love, Joy and Fear. They all have their own color and feeling. Love is a deep Ruby Red that radiates and pulsates with such radiance that it can blind some people and other people it's a comforting, warm light that envelopes them in a warm cocoon. I am surrounded by Love every day; my family's presence alone coats my very existence with the color Red. It grows especially bright on special moments when my mother, my sister and me sit around in the living room in a tight circle of friendship and love that may eventually be broken by time but never in my heart and the times when my dad and I ride to work in freezing temperatures or warm, windy weather but always there's a comforting, welcome glowing red all around us in the silence. I measure moments like these through Love, the color Red.

Sadness is a dark Sapphire Blue that shimmers and hangs around you for a while but sometimes it's fleeting and cold like a winter's breeze. Sadness, to me, is a very swift, sudden thing but it has a tendency to cling to you if you'll let it. I feel a quivering light blue when I see Life being wasted daily by uncaring, sad and scared individuals who think brandishing a gun, a knife and other weapons of hard steel can solve their problems or make them better. I see a dark intense blue when I feel anger, hurt and exhaustion from my friends and family and a bright, blinding blue when the fateful moment of two towers falling on the television screen, huddled, frightened people pray as debris of a million families in New York flutter or crash to the earth. I measure moments like these through Sadness, the color Blue. Joy is a light, sweet Pink that fills your heart and soul up with tickling Pink that either makes you want to laugh, a little gift called a smile across your face or it makes you want to soar with happiness into the clouds and above as far as you can possibly reach. I feel Joy every day. Some people will say I am an overly happy person but I believe that there is no such thing. Without a smile, this would be a very dull place. I feel a light, content Pink as I read a cherished book of Poems or a book where you can be swept away into places unseen and never heard of, where anything can happen. I feel a shouting, almost neon Pink as I laugh and joke with my sister, sharing smiles, laughs and treasures that I'll never let go of through my whole life and a exhilarating pretty Pink as I read little messages from my friend overseas in the morning and at night, it's a comforting and happy feeling of friendship and I hope to never ever lose that feeling. I measure moments like these through Joy, the color Pink. Fear is a hard, pure Black, Ebony, like a Raven's wings and the color of night. It either chills you to the bone and makes you shiver with dread or make you scream in delight and anticipation of the unknown. It's the uncertainty of things unseen and what's to come. I feel a dark gray, hard as granite stone when I look at the inner turmoil inside of me, a thing that can either overwhelm me, crushing me to the rocks of my own emotions or make me stronger, weather worn but still standing against my own inner Hurricane of uncertainty and doubt. I feel an Onyx black, sleek as a cube of ice and just as cold as I think about the unknown twists and winding paths of life that I have yet to trod but it is fleeting as I shake it off and tentatively move onward, never knowing what is ahead. I measure moments like these through Fear, the color Ebony.

Life, to me, is like a long, straight ruler with different, pulsating colors on the markers of life, sometimes it can be an unending river of clear, fast water with swirls of color amongst the sometimes icy or warm depths and sometimes it is a huge unfinished painting, waiting for an artist to pick up the brush and finish it's great design of many colors. Life. It can be measured in so many ways but I shall always measure it with colors.