The Color Green, Meanings and Symbolism

Green is everywhere. It covers forests, colors fields, soothes our eyes, and often symbolizes life. Yet this soft and radiant color carries a strange duality. A symbol of hope and renewal, it can just as easily embody jealousy, sickness, or poison. This ambivalence makes green a fascinating color, at the intersection of nature and culture, mysticism and science.

From alchemists to psychologists, artists to believers, everyone has given it a special place.

Green in Alchemy, Rebirth and Transformation

In alchemy, green holds strong symbolic significance. It is linked to transformation, growth, but also to putrefaction—a vital step in the Great Work. It is often associated with the "green lion," an emblematic figure representing a corrosive substance capable of devouring metals to reveal hidden gold.

This green lion is not just a symbolic monster: it embodies raw vital force, untamed natural energy. Alchemical green, far from being peaceful, is a color in motion, destroying to rebuild. It is the color of metamorphosis, of the passage from shadow to light.

Green in Psychology, Harmony, Hope... and Jealousy

In color psychology, green is often perceived as a color of balance. Positioned between cool blue and warm yellow, it symbolizes stability, inner peace, and harmony. That’s why it appears in many healing and relaxation spaces.

Yet this gentle color can also be ambivalent. It has long been associated with jealousy ("green with envy"), envy itself, and even illness. The sickly green of pale faces, the toxic green of venom or deadly potions, darken its image.

It thus embodies both hope and danger, renewal and poison. This duality makes it a deeply expressive color in the collective imagination.

Green in Art and History, Between the Sacred and Nature

In medieval Europe, green was the color of youth, budding love, but also instability. It appeared in the clothing of lovers, fools, and sometimes traitors. It was ambiguous, changing, like nature itself.

During the Renaissance, with a return to natural and classical values, green regained nobility. It became the color of landscapes, the Garden of Eden, of life reconciled with the divine. Green pigments, such as malachite or verdigris, were unstable or toxic, reinforcing its dangerous nature.

Today, green still appears in visual arts to evoke nature or anomaly. It inspires painters, illustrators, and designers who seek to express organicity, freshness, or disruption.

Green in Astronomy and Natural Sciences

In space, green is a rare color. Green stars don’t exist because the temperatures needed to emit green light are unstable—they appear more white. Still, green appears in the skies through the aurora borealis. This greenish tint is caused by oxygen ionization in the upper atmosphere.

On Earth, green dominates the plant world. Chlorophyll, the pigment responsible for photosynthesis, captures solar energy while giving plants their color. This connection between life, growth, and green is fundamental, both biologically and symbolically.

Green in Religion and Spirituality

In Islam, green is the sacred color par excellence. It evokes paradise, eternal life, and was worn by the Prophet. In Christianity, it represents hope and resurrection: it is worn during "ordinary" liturgical periods, symbolizing continuity and growth.

In Hinduism, green is linked to the heart chakra, Anahata, the center of love, harmony, and compassion. This color connects earthly and spiritual realms, through a deep balance between matter and emotion.

In many traditions, green is thus a color of life, renewal, heart opening, and divine promise.

Green in Pop Culture and Politics

Today, green is the color of ecology, environmental awareness, and sustainable development. It is the flag of "green" political parties, organic movements, and renewable energy.

In pop culture, green is polysemous: it is Hulk's skin, the color of aliens, of the green light that allows passage, or of the digital matrix in Matrix. At once natural and technological, comforting and unsettling.

Marketing heavily uses green to inspire trust, nature, freshness—but sometimes to mask truth behind questionable greenwashing claims.

A Balanced and Paradoxical Color

Color of nature, life, and hope, green is also that of poison, betrayal, or ambiguity. Its rich and contradictory symbolism makes it a unique color, both reassuring and troubling.

Omnipresent in our environment and collective unconscious, green continues to fuel imagination. Between alchemical rebirth, psychological calm, religious belief, and political commitment, it connects humanity to the earth, the sky, and itself.