"The Many Shades of Green"

This is being sent early, which I hope does not disturb the rhythm of receiving my essays, but I am busy over the next couple of days, and I thought this ready to go.

This is a short essay, but one with a long gestation. I began marveling at the varieties of green trees, plants and grasses, and the way in which the sun and clouds enhanced and shaped their color over thirty years ago, as I sculled the marsh creeks, rivers and ponds in front of our home in Old Lyme. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed (and still enjoy) the marvels of nature. The photo was taken here at Essex Meadows.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“The Many Shades of Green”

September 10, 2025

 

“When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,

And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;

When the air does laugh with our merry wit,

And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;”

                                                                                                                “Laughing Song,” 1789

                                                                                                                William Blake (1757-1827)

 

When hearing the word “green” some think of money or Ireland, others of emeralds or envy, still others the village square or a place to practice putts; a few think of Deerfield or Dartmouth football. But to me the word suggests nature’s most common color and the (almost) infinite variety in which it appears. In his poem “The Scarf and the Flower,” the 17^th Century Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote: “Green is the colour God doth fling...”

 

I asked ChatGPT: In how many shades does the color green appear? Its answer: “The human eye can distinguish about 100 different hues of green, but when you account for variations in brightness and saturation, people can see up to a million distinct shades of green.” I admit to not understanding the distinction between what “the human eye can distinguish” and what “people can see,” but who am I to question AI? I simply enjoy the variety.

 

On my first trip to London I flew over Ireland, trying to remember the lines from the 18^thCentury Irish poet, William Drennan: “God bless’d the green island and saw it was good...” And watching England’s green fields float below the plane’s windows brought a sense of home coming. For many years I sculled up the Lieutenant River, returning by way of Duck Pond and Duck River. Facing backward as I rowed home, I could see the steeple of Old Lyme’s Congregational Church, but what struck me was the wall of green I faced – deciduous and ever-green trees, holly, dogwood and azalea bushes that lined the river, and marsh grasses, all lit or clouded by the sky, all in myriad hues of green. As I dipped my oars before pulling back, I marveled at all I could see.

 

Now living at Essex Meadows, able to roam the hundred acres that surround us, I walk through fields and woods, absorbing the same miracle – the lawns and the residents’ garden, the bending birch trees in the field beyond, ever-greens tall against the blue sky, and high bushes providing food for deer. While climate change represents a challenge for humans, one aspect, according to a recently released, peer-reviewed report from the Energy Department: “Elevated carbon-dioxide levels enhance plant growth, contributing to global greening...” I’ll take that as a positive.

 

At the intersection, red tells us to stop, yellow to proceed with caution, but green tells us to go. Onward!