Bulawayo Morning Mirror Edition 1165 - 28/10/2026

FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN

HeeHoo and I have had a fifty year long disagreement over a particular shade of green. He calls it blue I call it green. There are obviously colours of blue that we do agree on, but those shades of turquoise, emerald, sea green, are very challenging. He feels he is right, (not only because he normally is), but because he is a paint and fabric colour chemist and he 'knows his colours'!! I on the other hand, tell him that my inner soul can differentiate between greens and blues!!

Colour occupies a unique place in the average person's worldview. On one hand, colour is intrinsically subjective. We all experience different emotions when we look at various colours. But on the other hand, colour is inherently tied to physics and mathematics. Every colour occupies a specific numerical wavelength apparently...

Blue is possibly the colour we see most of all around us in nature, but some scientists believe that the colour blue couldn't be seen by the earliest humans. In fact, at first, it is thought that they could only see black, white, red, and only after some time, yellow and green. In fact blue is the first colour that was synthetically made. Egyptian blue is was made 2000 years ago BC and was made by crushing and combining limestone, sand, and a mineral that contains copper.

Some suggest that the poet Homer alluded to this in his epic poem the Odyssey, with his description of the sea as being 'wine red.'

Blue affects mood, emotion and behaviour Blue is most often used in spaces where people need to rest because it makes us feel relaxed and calm.
Green of course is the next colour that we are most familiar with, but it's not even really a colour Green is only a primary colour of light and the only way to create green from scratch is to mix blue and yellow.

The first colours used by humans came from natural pigments like red ochre and yellow ochre, which were derived from iron-rich soil and clay and used in prehistoric cave paintings over 50,000 years ago. Our earliest examples of the colour red come from cave paintings which date back to 16,500 B.C.
The history of purple dates back to the bronze age. Around the 14th century BCE, the city of Tyre began producing a distinctly beautiful dye. Tyrians would create this dye from a few different shellfish found in the region. But even a small quantity of purple dye would call for thousands of shellfish to use as an ingredient.

It's said that 10,000 shellfish were needed to make even 1 gram of purple dye. At one point we have historical records showing that the dye was valued at three times its weight in gold. And pre-dyed wool was priced at about the same as its equivalent weight in gold. This means that purple dyed wool was quite literally worth its weight in gold.

Here in Zimbabwe we are so blessed with colours, our summers are vibrant in blues, greens, reds and every conceivable shade from natures palette. Walking yesterday I was mesmerised by the purple carpets that the Jacaranda trees were dropping. If the Phoenicians could do it thousands of years ago, why can't we gather these beautiful buds and make our own pigment from them

Then in Winter we flourish under the striking golds, reds, browns, tawny, mustard and ochres of the dry veld.

For centuries, European artists used a brown pigment known as 'mummy brown' or 'Egyptian brown,' made by grinding up material taken from mummified human and animal remains. Recipes varied, but some called for mummy material - including flesh, bones, wrappings, or substances scraped from inside the body - to be ground with a nut oil. The resulting warm, translucent brown was particularly useful for painting shadows, flesh tones, and glazes.

Mummies were also once sold as medicine.
Long before European artists painted with mummies, patients swallowed them. . By the 12th century, powdered mummy was being sold in Europe as a treatment for bruises, bleeding, and numerous other ailments. Demand eventually inspired counterfeiters to pass off recently deceased people as ancient mummies. Suspicions that mummy medicine could spread plague helped discredit the medicine thank goodness.

But back to my preamble, the new shirt I bought for HeeHoo, is it blue or is it green

Bird observations in Zimbabwe by Ross G. Cooper, D.Phil. (rgcooper@hotmail.com)

It doesn't take a lot of effort to take a walk down or cycle into the veld or vlei in your local area to observe bird life. You don't necessarily have to go to Monovale Wetlands, Mukuvisi Woodlands, Mare Dam, Lake Chivero or to the National Botanical Gardens to do so. A simple yet publishable study can be conducted voluntarily by deciding on a starting and ending point in the local greenbelt or field and pencil writing down records of all birds observed. The distance would have to be substantial in order to have meaningful results, but not exhaustive. Birds are a fine example of creatures which may indicate the health of a habitat, whether it is a wetland or along the length of a tributary of a known river, the banks of a dam or the grasslands of fields, etc.

Even studies in large gardens are a great pastime. You see, I did exactly this starting from when my paternal grandfather Gordon T. Cooper encouraged me to go on walks with him in the vlei of Mabelreign, Harare to spot birds and write down their particular phenotypes, behaviours, feeding and so on. These later led to publications of articles thereon in popular peer-reviewed scientific journals. Bird spotting is a wonderful hobby. It's healthy to get out there into the outdoors. If you have a camera and binoculars, great. If not, don't worry - you can make observations by eye. Printable check lists of areas can be printed from eBird. I encourage you to take it up. If you wish to obtain a free copy of an example of a like study I completed and published, please kindly email me. Thank you. Ross.

Zimbabwe is abundant in impressive plants and geology. Try and take a walk and collect fallen seed pods or seeds from fruits picked off native trees. Also select a few rocks and stones. Dig up some soil. Take these back home and cultivate the seeds in clay pots or old plastic containers. Ensure you chop up dried grass or leaf mulch and insert it in the bases thereof. Water them often, if necessary, using used bath and dish water. After a while you'll observe germinations and if you carefully prune the resultant plant and tend it with lots of patience, you can create a magnificent bonsai. Around the edge of the pot, you may lay down the stones collected in the bush thus creating a natural artificial display that may last many years. Whether you have a garden or not, such creations are the pride and joy of many households and make excellent displays on windowsills.

Amateur botany in Zimbabwe
by
Ross G. Cooper, D.Phil., rgcooper@hotmail.com

Botany can be an interesting hobby. Take a walk through the veld or fields in your area and observe the flora. Amongst the tall, waving yellowed grass you'll observe small colourful wild flowers growing on creepers clinging to sturdy stems. Others poking through the tassels have bright orange petals. Wild aloes and their spiky stems conceal white, red or yellow flowers. Tree blossoms may include those of indigenous msasa, mopane, mutamba, mukonde, munhondo, muunga, mukwa, mutiti, marula, muzhanje, etc. or introduced species including jacaranda, flame tree or flamboyant. Pick some and press them in between sheets of newspaper weighted down with books or bricks until dry.

Create an album of dried pressed flora with notes including common and binomial names, the place of collection and date. An ordinary school exercise book will do. Of course, don't disturb protected native species like the flame lily. Take photos of your identified plants or sketch them and write penciled notes on their surrounding ecology including its state of health and/or threats it is facing. Practice makes perfect, so try and get out there, when you have some time, and become a budding environmental botanist.