What do we think if, closing our eyes, we are asked to visualize hope? Probably many would appear in their minds not a definite image but something abstract, to which no form corresponds. Most of us would perhaps think of a color and more specifically of green. But are we really sure that this color has always had its current meaning? In this delicate moment in which "hope" is a must, let's retrace the history of this particular shade together.
Incredible twists
When it comes to colors, the name of Michel Pastoureau immediately springs to mind. Historian and anthropologist as well as leading expert in the history of color. Through his words we can really travel an itinerary full of curiosities and even twists! These are words loaded with that strong passion that only drives an architecture of transversal and all-encompassing research. His multidisciplinary investigations cross over into such a multiplicity of topics that there is literally to be lost! So what does Pastoureau tell us about green? It begins immediately with a disconcerting fact, or at least astonishing contemporary man. "Green is a fox ... which has always hidden its game ... a dangerous color whose true nature is instability". And who would have ever imagined it? Today this color relaxes us, associated with meadows and vegetation. Synonymous with hope and freedom. It calms our mind, it purifies us, it is the color of the environment.
How come then to accuse him of madness? Describe him as a shrewd double agent ready to deceive us? It is clear that green has "built" a certain identity over time. A character attributed to it by the men of the past who had so many difficulties in stabilizing the dye on fabrics and paintings. Faded greens, ready to turn brown or yellowish, corrosive and even toxic greens! A vulnerable, changeable color, we could almost say "moody". And it is no coincidence that he was accused of bringing bad luck and even expelled from theaters for this! Towards the end of the 600th century this bad reputation was consolidated. In fact, many actors died after playing characters in green costumes. A fault to be attributed to the use of copper acetates capable of producing greens that are as bright as they are toxic to health. But this color was also a crafty one, ready to dispense good news as suddenly to deliver inauspicious blows!
Between good and bad luck
Trivially we just need to think of the game tables that still retain this color today. Just to remind us that things are never random but respond to meanings that are lost in the maze of the past. Luck and bad luck "go hand in hand". Youthful love is green because it is unripe and immature, the time of waiting, Some sprites and demons they are greenish. Really potions and mysterious poisons! Gambling, especially gambling, is by extension financial affairs they wear this color. Same dollars are one example, green banknotes not by chance! But how do we get to the redemption of this color and its current meanings?
Green today
Then, at a certain point in the story, it happens that the green is cleared of the murky past. Not without difficulty: appreciated and discredited ... admired and disdained. Between ups and downs he will timidly succeed, from the mid-800th century, to gain positions. It spreads a new interest, the one that leads many people to see the countryside and its colors as a place to regenerate. And from here a series of collateral associations unfold. If the green of nature purifies then it means that it is good for the body and so it becomes too the color of hygiene. The same pharmacies, once in Italy they were identified by a red cross, today they are associated with green. But this color is also linked to the spirit, it is energy therefore freedom and even civic sense. Un ethical color, reassuring, saving. In a word, it is hope, the one we so much need today.
Green is a pass, it is what it authorizes. He gives us the green light but he does it with knowledge. Like? Through traffic lights for example. And why him and not another shade? The explanation lies in the so-called pure colors. Red is one of these and has green as its complement. An opposite not only in color but also in concept. So if red expresses a prohibition, green authorizes. Today we entrust this color with numerous objects but also proverbs. Being broke, green hope, green petrol, the bins have this color. It's still escape routes, ping pong tables, free admission of certain telephone numbers. Between past remnants and more current revaluations, green is no longer “just a color” but a vehicle of stories and meanings.