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Did we ever think spring was going to arrive? Though we still have some cool temperatures, the rains have created a lush and vibrant landscape. Yeah! In celebration of Spring we have selected “Green” to be our Color Chronicle for the month. The fabulous thing about Green is there is so much of it in our natural environment that we actually see more green than any other color at any given moment. It is the most soothing color to the eye as well. In this image of Fenwicks’ wild flower meadow there are greens as far as the eye can see. It’s amazing.

Green is typically symbolic of nature, rebirth, growth and new beginnings. In many cultures the word Green is linked with these symbols. In Japanese, the word green “Midori” means “to be in leaf, to flourish”. In China, the symbolic meaning references fertility. Green was so reversed by the Romans that they created Venus, the goddess of gardens and vineyards. And today Green has become a movement, a symbol for environmental causes, sustainability and the preservation of our plant.

Physiologically the color Green affects the nervous system causing us to breathe slowly and deeply, reducing the production of stress hormones which creates anxiety thus enabling us to relax. Theaters and television stations have “green rooms” where performers may relax their eyes before facing the glare of intense stage lights.

A surgeon at St. Lukes Hospital in San Francisco in 1914 had enough of all the sterile white surrounding him and had his operating room painted a “lettuce-leaf” green making the space more soothing to the eye. As we know green on the color wheel is the opposite or complementary color to Red and Pink (Blood and Tissue). The color concept took off and became the standard for most surgical suites, medical treatment rooms, partition panels and uniforms.

Green can be a fabulous color to use in a Library, Hunter Green comes to mind, or in an office balanced with Blue which is also a color that produces calmness. Living Rooms are wonderful spaces to introduce strong greens as shown below with a fabulous F Schumacher strie wallcovering and a Velvet sofa from Kravet.