Family trees —

knots,

&

yellow ribbons

Fields —

Blue,

cotton, wool

&

Gray,

In Peace?

Emerald blades

blanket

each

grave

Jade clutched her arm as the blood spilled out. Blood as green as the grass. Except the grass had long since turned brown. Jade was the last shred of green in this world.

It had been like that ever since the Peaceful came. They vowed to eliminate violence.

And green was violence. The trees, the grass, everything green had to go. Because green was violence.

Jade could not scream, even though the pain ripping through her arm made her want to. She kept her fingers tight around the wound, hoping to stem the flow. The green blood. The poison blood.

The Peaceful were after her. They sought to eliminate Green. And Jade was the embodiment of green. Her eyes, green. Her name, green. Her blood, green.

Of course, she didn’t know it, but the Peaceful had already found her. They were silently circling, closing in, waiting for the right moment. They were watching her green blood, her green eyes, her green hair, her green skin. She was green.

The Peaceful were from another planet, the planet Emerald, or so it translated in Jade’s language, and they had seen it destroyed by violence. The Peaceful knew it was because of Green. Their planet had been cursed. Now, they traveled the galaxy, eradicating the green and leaving the planets once they had been made Peaceful.

Often, that meant leaving behind broken families and desolate wastelands, but the Peaceful didn’t care, and why should they? Their mission was just. Peace at last...

For so long, peace had been unattainable. Wars had ravaged Earth for decades now, ever since the assassination at the Alliance in 2999. Humanity thought that, as a new millenia arrived, it would be a new chance for peace, for growth, but instead, it only ushered in war like had never been seen.

The Peaceful had their sights set on Earth for years. They knew Earth was very similar to Emerald; cursed by the green. And so they came to help.

That was in 3006. Before people stopped keeping track of the dates and just focused on surviving.

Soon, almost no one was surviving.

But Jade had survived. And now she was about to die.

For years, she’d wondered why the Peaceful thought she had green blood. It was red. Her eyes were a dark brown. Jade was not green.

Until she realized it.

Their eyes.

The Peaceful saw the world in monochrome, and in their society, they had deemed the color they saw “Green.” Everything they saw was in shades of green.

And when Jade finally saw the Peaceful, closing in on her with their beady black eyes, she wondered when they’d realize it. When they’d start to turn on each other. She wondered who would be the last one standing.

She wondered when they’d realize that the green wasn’t the violence, they were.

She wondered all of these things, but she’d never get the answers.

She wouldn’t be around to see them.

of course green is violence. its a signal of resources; a peaceful, sought after oasis. of course green is violence. the very word itself means something inexperienced and keen on impulse; raw, unfiltered nature. of course green is violence! it's everything we've been trying to stay away from with our caves that turned into huts that turned into houses so complex and beautiful we never have to step out into the green. of course, green is violence. everything green competes with us for the sunlight, reminding us who the real aliens are.

of course, if green is violence, then it surely doesn't explain how we've been seeing so much blue and red and purple and white and black and still having violence. maybe it all comes back to who is the strongest. the filters of the universe are echoed in our own nature - as below so above - and the fittest will survive, as Darwin surmised when he saw those finches on those islands. Darwin stepped into the green of the Galapagos, sprouting from its black lava rock, underneath the blue sky, being kissed by the black-blue sea; he saw the little brown birds with their varying beaks and asked, "why?" and he drew a couple lines and put some specimens in jars to travel with him back to England, to live on a shelf for all this green Earth's existence as a prize of human advancement.

evolution is violence. and nothing is greener than that.

the way you look at me when i am exhausted and you are stressed and we both just need to get out of our heads is violence. our thoughts have evolved past what our brains can handle. just a memory and i can feel the tension in my body as if i were really there. the hormones are triggered by any little thought and i am caught in the turbulent waves, the violence that keeps our planet spinning - both around it's own axis and the sun magnetism.

our planet is green. as far as we know, it's the greenest one to exist. and it holds the highest death rate, birth rate, suicide rate, unemployment rate, and dance-dance revolution stars who entertain folks in the arcade of the mall as they wait for their loved ones to pick out a pair of shoes.

what if green = violence? just look out the window. maybe violence isn't so scary. perhaps we are like sharks on our green land, primed to handle everything thrown our way. everything excpet those damn hormones that keep getting triggered over no real threat. ill always be envious of those damn zebras and their non-ulcer life.

Green does mean violence,

in every aspect of the word.

Money provokes danger, simply from what you've heard.

Being rich is nice because your bills will all be paid.

But being rich is the reason for cemetery plots being made.

Green turns to greed and that stems from violence.

From working all of your life, or simply getting your weekly allowance.

Someone would think you live better, and they want the life you live.

They will try to get more out of you, no matter how much you give.

green is violance!

to every color receptor in the eye, they violently send signals to tbe visual cortex. there, the object is interperted as either a danger or as a something to not worry about. but here the mistake looms.

we fail to see the tree snake!!!!!!

it slithers slowly, blending perfectly with the surrounding leaves.

it waits for the best time to pounce, injecting greenish venom inside my veins.

the brussel sprouts dont eat themselves. they wait on the white porcelain, clearly contrasting in colors. no cammoflage here, just hate and sorrow. i shall not take my fork, but for self-defense!!

dare-you candies- you suck on them , anguishing in the super-sourness of the coating. it should pass within seconds and turn to seconds, but i don’t last. it flies out violently out of my mouth. i failed! i failed! i failed!!!!

the toxic spray the was releaseed by the mothership started out pink. but the organisms oxydised everything to super-dead chains, that reflected all light, except for green. and so what was the screaming populuce, the suffocating humanity, was turned to a hardened foam, of green color, which preserved the terror to the intense satisfaction of the invaders.

every filthy picture of greed is matted by 'green'

every forest populated with child slaves beaten to dig up materials you need for your technology has the backdrop of green

rotting human bodies of war meet decomposition in the form of gangrene

most sexuality transmitted disease caused by using rape as a weapon of war produce green piss in victims

Asparagus which is green and ... causes green urine is harvested for pennies on the day of human beings seen more disposable than drinking straws

bruises on the faces of victims of physical violence fade from purple to green

BDU = battle dress uniform in the military .... green

Oscar the grouch

The Hulk

the sky before a tornado

the poison part of a potato

and grass eaten by Irish during a famine

venus fly traps (they don't need to eat living things, they choose it)

.... not a real green dress, that's cruel

leave of three that are not let be

and if you live in Michigan, MSU

If green = violence, physchology books would have an added chapter. How would we reconcile? Would we avoid grass and stay out of the forests? Or would we embrace the chaos and perverse liberation? If green = violence, we must introduce a new colour that = peace, to maintain balance between the two. Newton's third: for every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction.

From the beginning to the distant end

A spectrum of deep, rich, earthy brown to swirling dust

And in between you grow, reaching high to a burning red sky

Starting from beneath the ground defying harsh conditions

Tearing through the earth to reach with long green claws

Crawling through the brush with sneaky green vines

And devouring with green envy whatever lies in your path

Leaving only green in your wake

Stone crushing green

Green falling from the sky

Rotting in plastic containers

Being trimmed and restrained

And now she will fight because green is anger and green is right

Where flat gray concrete once was, now green fury has spread

Spreading up and across the pavement with strong roots holding steady

beneath....beneath, beneath, but not for long no! Up rises green bringing with it

Yellow dandelions and future poofy wishes rooted with green stems

What Earth's children have built, becoming unmade as Mother rises up

The war fought with stone and earth, as green spills over the battlefield

And flowers bloom and fruits fall, spoils of a battle in an ever constant war