On Color

I made a salad the other day with whatever I had in the fridge- radishes, tomatoes, pickled beet root, cheese- and as I was cutting the radishes I was arrested by their loveliness.  By their crisp, clean insides and vibrant skins that shined almost magenta in the sun.

It made me wish that I could bottle colors.  I'd display these bottles, small like spice jars, on a shelf in a sunny room and watch them change as the light moved throughout the day. What colors would I bottle?  The perfect off-white of a birch tree trunk, the deep purple of an Acer leaf, and the salmon-pink of flamingo feathers.  The inky black of a cobra's scales, the hot red of a chili still on the vine, and the stunning green of a fiddlehead.  All the colors of a peacock, and the warm brown of a buffalo hide.  There are so many arrestingly beautiful colors in the world and fashion, art, photography and words really do them no justice, which makes them all the more precious.  Notice the colors around you, dear reader, and live colorfully.

p.s. A couple months ago there was a really great RadioLab program about color called Why Isn't the Sky Blue. Listen to it.  It's amazing!