What is my favourite colour?

So I wanted to start writing again. And no, none of that performative bullshit that I write on LinkedIn. Actual thoughts and feelings. On cold, hard paper (Notion), using my fingers (no AI).

I have recently been reading a lot about writing. I have also been reading about reading. And now I am writing about reading. How fun. How important.

But yes, I read this essay by Paul Graham about the importance of writing essays. And that made me realise that once I am gone, only my words will remain. And I want those words to mean something. I want the reader to want to read what I have to say. So if you are reading this, this is my humble attempt. Thank you for indulging.

To return to the art of writing (and a lost art it shall become as the AI-Slopification and the Claudisms and the outsourcing of generating words into sentences become the new normal), I thought, let me start with something simple.

What is my favourite colour?

As I wrote this, I was notified by the little red underline that both the words ‘favourite’ and ‘colour’ had been misspelled. Ahh, the British vs American English conundrum. I spent five minutes thinking about which spelling to choose. Which words looked better aesthetically, even though they both meant the same. For this piece, I will use the spelling my colonial hangover left for me.

So… What is my favourite colour?

When we were young, this was one of the key questions that felt very important. It still is. There is always a story behind how someone decided to choose a favourite colour. As I explore this for myself, maybe I’ll learn something about myself. Maybe you’ll learn something about me. Maybe we’ll all learn something new. And isn’t that the point of reading altogether?

When we were in kindergarten, and it was time to draw, I clearly remember an immediate gender separation. Boys went for blue, girls went for pink. It was 1999 in India, so any other genders were not allowed to be recognised yet.

Everything has a reason for being the way it is. And on doing some light research, I figured out that this idea of blue vs pink actually has a deep cultural history. And until the last century, the colour impositions were actually reversed. Turns out, colour stereotypes have a lot to do with clothing.

Decades ago, colors for boys and girls were the complete opposite. Pink was considered to be a watered-down version of a fierce red, which is more suitable for boys while blue was considered more suitable for girls because of the correlation to the Virgin Mary, who often depicted wearing shades of blue. According to the June 1918 edition of Ladies Home Journal, it was the generally accepted rule that pink was for boys and blue was for girls because pink was considered a stronger color and therefore more suitable for boys than the dainty and delicate blue.

The current idea of pink for girls/blue for boys did not come to be until the 1950s, post-WWII. For example, in Nazi Germany, pink triangles were used in concentration camps to identify homosexuals, which led to the idea of men wearing pink is feminine. Post-World War II, blue became used more and more as a color for men while pink was used to promote femininity in women. For example, the 1957 movie Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn shows her very feminine character wearing pink-colored clothing. The idea of pink for girls and blue for boys is relatively new.

Interesting. Like everything else that becomes a solid trend in fashion and pop culture, the colour pink was also made popular by the LGBTQ+ community (although against their choice), before the straight community swoops in to take credit. The more you know, I guess.

Anyway, back to my story.

I didn’t really like either of those colours. My three-year-old self thought they were too mainstream and boxed me in. So I decided I’d pick something from the leftovers. The ones that no one wanted.

I chose green.

Everybody thought I was weird for choosing that. Maybe because it was associated with aliens, Martians to be precise. Green clothing wasn’t really popular either. Of course, I didn’t know all these layers. I just knew it wasn’t a common one recommended by parents. They wanted to play it safe with blue and pink.

I chose it because it was the colour I saw around me the most. It was the colour of nature. And I liked nature. As a creature of this world, I understood it and it understood me.

So it was decided. Green it was. Everyone always asks, ‘What is your favourite colour?’ Very few follow it up with ‘Why?’ So I never really thought about this question for a while.

Eventually, as you get older, people don’t ask this question often either. As I was writing this essay, I got very curious and wanted to explore a bit more about what this colour means for our society. So this next part is all about the colour green and what it means for our world and society.

The word green comes from the Old English word grene, which described the colour of plants. And thus, green is the colour that symbolises life.

Grass, trees, leaves.

Lots of fruits and vegetables are green when they are ripe. Lots are green when they are not.

Green means go.

Green means good in the stock market (unless you’re in East Asia).

Green signifies money. Surprisingly, only the US dollar is a prominent green currency. Again, this was just by luck. During the Civil War, green pigment was cheap, so the dollar became green.

Green also has a huge role to play in the religion of Islam. It is said that the people in heaven wore green robes. A lot of country flags have green. Pakistan wears green when they play cricket. So does South Africa. But wearing traditional green clothing gets associated with Islam in India too.

Green is the colour of Google and Spotify. Green was the colour of the original computer monitors. Green is the best form of neon.

Matcha is green. My guitar is green (seafoam albiet).

Green has been associated with the negative as well. Slytherin is green. Jealousy and envy are green. Witches making evil potions do it in green too. Slime is green, toxic waste is green.

Shrek is green. Shrek is life. Green is life. Full circle.

I think the point is: favourite colours mean something, and a lot more than just what we think.

Each colour exists to represent multiple things in our society, and it’s an interesting exercise to think about how those things may have intentionally or unintentionally influenced us.

When was the last time you truly thought about why or how you chose yours? Where else do you see it?