Below is a selection from my essay Riboflavin 4%. The entire piece can be found on the Essays Page. There will be more coming there as well as the Poetry Page while I continue to work on "Touch".
The newest born of the lot is blue, favored most highly by those the world over. What is this color?
Some say it is the color of depression and despair. But I cannot help thinking of another blue. The infinite (or seemingly so) expanse of the sky on a summer evening about half an hour before the sun sets. The sight is known to all I’m sure. A look to the East shows the encroaching darkness of the night, perhaps with the beacon of our silent white neighbor.
I’ve always found the moon a reassuring thing. Like the sun, it lights the earth, though not in the same way of course. I don’t need to give an astronomy or physics lesson, but the moon seems to me the greatest mirror devised. What simple genius it was to place a ball of whitish-grey dust in the orbit of the only known life-harboring planet? Not that I’m saying any one person or being put it there on purpose. Even with no god or ultimate creator, the way the universe has designed itself is absolute genius.
The blue surrounding that gleaming orb in early evening is the shade I love. Some would call it purple or indigo. But to me, it’s a deep and sultry blue.
But blue can be light and airy. That same moon, shining through broken clouds on freshly fallen snow, casts a bluish pall on the night.
White on blue. There is something reassuring to that I feel. Just think of how bright pink stars would look on the blue field of the stars and Stripes…
Green
LIFE! I’m actually surprised how much green I see every day. When you think of it, there must be some naturality to the color green that invigorates a person. At intersections when driving, we anticipate the change from red to green indicating that an invisible barricade has evaporated. The great symbol of freedom standing in New York harbor is eternally known to be a pale shade of emerald, though anyone familiar with her material will know that she was once a brownish gold. Plants, the most obvious and abundant green are life itself. They create the energy that makes our own lives possible. Without green, there is death.