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FoRTY shADEs

oF RED…

By James Clarke, Photography by Mary Broadley

Winter is white, wouldn’t you say? it occurs naturally in red cabbage and red onions.

Pale sun, a glaring waterless sky. It’s said, unfairly, that ‘redheads’ are quick to anger which
is probably based on our perception of the emotional
Spring is green. Summer is yellow aspects of red: ‘red with rage’, ‘red alert’, ‘seeing red’

and so on. The red in the 2 percent of humans who
with lots of orange – and sunny. And are redheaded is from the pigment, pheomelanin,
autumn? It is surely red. which also accounts for the red colour of our lips.

I n my youth, a long way from here and some time ago, but the full range of the colours. As somebody said, “I’ve
Apes and monkeys – in fact all of us primates – distinguish
post renaissance, autumn was distinctly red and gold. In
never seen a colour I don’t like.” But dogs and cattle
south Africa, it is most pronounced in the Western Cape

when the vineyards change to red and copper and the cannot see red. The bullfighter’s red cape might as well be
green. The bull charges at it only because it is moving.
leaves of some trees turn red and then brown and fall off.

Dogs have what is called dichromacy – they can see blues and
Oak trees, for some reason, hang on to their leaves, yellows but cannot tell red from green – both appear grey.
sometimes right through winter even though they
change colour. Oaks wait until people can feel spring To the Chinese, red symbolises happiness. To us in the West,
is in the air and are standing, smugly, admiring it more often symbolises danger. It can also symbolise
their clean lawns. That’s when the oaks mutter to love and passion – and lust.
themselves: “Now!” And they dump their leaves.
Cleopatra used red lipstick and so
This time of year trees cease turning sunlight into did the virgin Queen, Elizabeth I.
energy, via the process known as photosynthesis,
Suzuki Kyalami and start absorbing it into their trunks and roots According to Wikipedia, an

– strengthening themselves for winter. experiment by the university of
010 541 0700 31 River close, Barbeque Downs, Kyalami
south Brittany in France asked
The withdrawal of chlorophyll allows the yellow to shine female students to wear red,
SuzukiKyalami.co.za through, the yellow that was there all the time. The red is pink or brown lipstick, or none
from a pigment called anthocyanin which is not present at all, and to sit at a bar. They found men approached
through spring and summer. The trees produce it in women wearing red lipstick fastest and most often.
autumn. Anthocyanin, by the way, is the same pigment
that women use for dying their hair red or purple – and “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the

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