I love the colour green. Infact, it happens to be my favourite colour. I think that happened because i fancied wearing green while playing hide and seek as a kid, convenient as it was for camouflage, to hide in the bushes, behind the plant fences, on the trees. Half my wardrobe consists of green clothes, much to my mother's disapproval, as a result of which shopping with her would mean buying non-green clothes. Sad for me, for i hardly ever shop without her. The only time i went diwali shopping with one of my friends, my mother(who was in kenya at that time) was smart enough to tell her that greens, blacks and off-whites are not allowed! And very annoyingly, my friend stuck to the code, and didn't allow me even to look at clothes having those colours as the main! And i ended up getting something in rust. RUST. Ok, it wasn't so bad actually!
Green can be such a radiant colour. When you're cooking something, and say you have a mix of tomatoes and capsicums or beans on the stove, you'll realise it looks very nice, in way that appeals not only to your eyes, but to your mouth too :) And then one suddenly thinks about all the colours that are so richly present in the things we take for granted, in the things we dont bother to take a second look at... The rich red of apples, the subtle yellow of the babycorn, the happy orange of the carrot, the dark purple of the betroot, the pink-purple-white blend of the turnip, the lush green of cabbage, the dark green of okra, the pleasant green of capsicum, the pastel green of lime, the shiny green of chillies, the dull green of beans, the wet green of coriander, the fresh green of spinach. The fresh green of spinach. Spinach. One green i like looking at. But when that green takes advantage of my liking for it, and abuses my taste buds, and forces its way through my oesophagus, it crosses a line so delicate, that it spoils the relation between us. To be more direct, i hate spinach.
Keerai.
Need i mention the varieties?
Molai keerai, murungu keerai, paalak, methi..blah. If there's anything besides the green that i like about keerai, its chopping it. The process is quite complicated, considering the leaves need to be painfully seperated from their dear stems they've always been attached to, and thought they'll be attached to forever. Once the plucking has been satisfactorily carried out, chopping round 1 begins. There's this
krrr krrr krrr sound that arises from the movement of the knife, backward and forward on the leaves awaiting execution, that could easily pass for music, depending on what one defines music to be. To me, the sound of the knife on keerai comes second only to the sound of a knife on capsicums! Crazy as that might sound, it is true. Removing the mid-portion of a capsicum, containing the seeds, the portion that is not usually eaten by normal humans, gives a sound that my brother and i find absolutely appealing. If one has not ever heard it before, i suggest one does it asap. Coming back to the keerai, round 1 of chopping usually results in uneven bits of leaf, strewn around the place, making it seem more like a mess than ever. And so one steps into round 2 of the chopping, making the bits more even in size, making them smaller, re-cutting the tender stems which are allowed entry with the other leaves. Aah then one stares at the vessel...with the mass of green staring back, and maybe even yelling out "
how dare you hurt me so!" depending on one's state of mind. That done, one gives the mass of green the holy bath, under tap water, in an attempt to keep away from their intimidating stares. The cooking of the mass of green can be elaborated in
a whole different post by itself, but i shall refrain.
So lets just say one keeps the vessel aside... and one realises one's hands have a green tinge. One's nails are definitely green too. What do they call it? Aah, chlorophyll. When i had first come across that word, early in school, maybe in my 4th std, i remember pronouncing it again and again, using not only my tongue and voice, but my whole mouth and jaw, and telling people around me that the reason plants are so green is because of CHLO-RO-PHYLL. And so one turns to the next task at hand...forcing the green out of one's nails. *sigh* And as one does that... flashes of an experiment carried out in the biology laboratory encroach upon the brain's territory. There it was, a whatmann no.1 filter paper, protruding from a test tube, holding on it, adsorbed pigments from a leaf that was crushed with the help of a mortar and pestle, the pigments loosened out by acetone and petroleum ether. The pigments occupied parts of a bell shaped design...colours green, yellow and a light orange forming curves. It was easily the most interesting experiment that year, and the most beautiful thing the bio lab had seen, other than the royal colour of copper sulphate blue. Another colour that remains one of my favourites. I think i'll stop here. Though considering the number of topics i've touched, i could go on forever, as one thing always leads to another, and one thought triggers another.
comments section - tell us your favourite sounds, and colours :D
Lastly, i'd like to say a little prayer for my uncle who passed away recently. May his soul rest in peace, and may he find more happiness than he ever had. God Bless.
Yours "krr krr krr" ly
Signing off....
