SPRING GREEN

spring green is incomparable. no one wears it well, except the tiny leaf buds of a pecan tree showing off against the cerulean sky. vines, climbers, tendrils, delicate tracings of new life all bask in un-nameable greens, each transporting its own designer color. lying in the grass seeing bugs crawl the stalks and inhaling the fresh-cut scent are my harbingers of springtime. it quickly bursts to darker shades and is gone, leaving me to engage its passing only with the loss. I enjoy the seasonal turns of color that wash across the marshes of the coast :a deep summer green that indian-summers into fall, a predominant winter graying brown, and then that pale new spring green slowly creeping up each stem, painting the creeks with colored fringe, welcoming warmer waters.

the words of green are myriad. celery, basil, pistachio, mint yield hints of herbal delights. celadon is a trendy word of Chinese origin, often with soft gray tones in its early green. chartreuse can be painfully tart and biting, but so lovely to say. teal, turquoise and aqua all blend to blues, while sage and olive hold gray.  and i like the laughing thought that envy, money, ecology and leprechauns are all captured in green.