Autumn in human colours

Sporadic colours of autumn here and there.

I suppose it is autumn now. Even here in North-West England, the trees are turning yellow or non-specific brown. You can’t say that the colours would be anything compared to those in the Nordic countries or Canada, vice versa. Here the colours of autumn are more or less sporadic, not at all omnipresent.

It occurred to me that colours stand for lots of things also for us humans. They signify overall appearance, moods, impressions, concepts, indicators of health, and race etc. In the following, I’ll try to define as many points of view as possible from a human perspective. As a helping tool I’ll use the Munsell Color System, introduced by Albert Munsell in 1921.

First a couple of clarifying words about this system. Munsell defines three factors for each shade of colour: hue, value and chroma. Hue is the actual name of a colour that we use in everyday language, like red or blue. Value describes the lightness of a shade, or how much black or white is involved. Finally, chroma indicates the intensity, or how strong or weak the hue is. The more gray there is, the weaker the colour is. OK, now we know enough about the terminology and we can go into real business.

Regarding an individual’s appearance, in the past, a red hued face used to indicate good health, outdoors life, and wealth. Nowadays, more or less, a red face means that the previous evening has been long, or is still continuing until peak chroma. Of course, especially outdoors exercising can still today produce a reddish facial hue, but on the other hand overly red cheeks may suggest diabetes. Blushing may reveal various states of mind, but also depict growing red rage. A friend of mine, a construction engineer, advised me to continue bargaining over the price of a condominium until the vendor starts turning first red and then purple. Purple was supposed to be the phase when I should stop or even pull back a tad, not before. I suppose, the vendor’s intentions were closely related to the value of the sales object, however, that had nothing to do with the value of the paint on the walls. In general, there seems to be much red tape in housing trade, and some get caught red-handed. What a coincidence in terminology.

Still less than 100 years ago, believe or not, red was the colour of boys and soldiers, and blue was explicitly for girls. Actually, up to the 15th century, also the boys were called girls, "knave girls", and the girls were called "gay girls" (sic!). The word "boy" was for servants. At some point pink took over a great deal of girls’ affairs, which perhaps was the beginning of the downfall of the boyish red colour. For this reason, to me pink is the colour of female spies; just remember Mata Hari and Agent 99. Interestingly, pink doesn't show in the spectrum at all, it is an extra spectral colour. A clear sign of its spying nature. The British Royal Guard still wear bright, high chroma red jackets where blood doesn’t show clearly. However, in modern warfare in the bushes, a red jacket would more likely make an excellent target. Nevertheless, nose bleeding may always catch anyone standing in front of the Buckingham Palace.

Pirjo didin't get nose bleed.

Feeling blue means that you are not in the very best mood. There of course is a chance that you have a heart condition and you’re in need of extra oxygen, or then you’re just cold. Having these both at the same time could produce a really deep blue chroma. If you are blue in the meaning of sad, perhaps rather nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, would help. Tickling could also be applied until your hue turns into red.

If someone is called green, it may suggest s/he is fresh, young, or inexperienced, or then simply green of envy. The last expression, I believe, is more old auntish than young youngish. Young individuals tend to change facial hue in direction of pink or the whole spectrum of blushing shades, when realizing: "The new girlfriend of my ex-boyfriend has more skilfully faded (= higher in value, lower in chroma) jeans than I have." The values at that age are so multiform and unclear for us older. Again, those values have nothing to do with the value of the colour of the jeans.

Brown is the hue of the traditional British country tweed and human faeces. Also green can be found in the both of them. In the latter, greenish hue may indicate some kind of bowel infection. If there is a suspicion that contaminated tweed clothing is the source of infection, samples of them both should be taken to a laboratory. Brownish tanning, as a result of sunbathing, is considered good looking and posh by those who are not afraid of melanomas. The higher the chroma, the more expensive the holiday was. But then, victims of drowning tend to gain pretty much the same hue and chroma as those having spent the longest time under the most expensive sun. The first lose their life, the latter lose their money; in terms of hue/chroma the results are anyway equal.

Yellow is a hue which also, under favourable conditions, is within reach on holidays. Either the subject developing this skin colour has consumed contaminated food, or alternatively continued home country related alcohol drinking in overdoses. In the both cases it is the liver that has got into the line of fire; it could be depicted "friendly fire". Yellow press would cheerfully inform the public if this happened to one of our numerous celebrities. Again, colour terminology works admirably well in some combinations. If the result is just dull gray, the reasons may lie anywhere. The hue of nose could provide some hints as a red hue might point in the direction of so called purchased fatigue. Anyway, the overall chroma would be very low.

Excessive use of orange, as well as yellow, in clothing is often connected to madness or disturbed state of mind. Hysterical carrot eaters have a good chance of transferring this hue to the skin too. If you represent both groups, what a fashionable autumnal combination you may have developed. Already in October, trends in this direction are visible all over. The nature in England turns crazy yellow and orange, and in the north vegetation also reaches a stage of red rage. On the other hand, it is understandable as the winters up there are so much colder than here. We humans are not alone.

Now we have come to the end of this colourful adventure. Anyway, regarding colours, our perceptions are finally up to the differing wavelengths of light, bouncing back from the observed nose, face, surface, or whatever. It is time to wave you good night; switch the lights off in the kitchen.