Green

Green is the color of growing grass, leaves and emeralds. The word green has the same Germanic root as the words for grass and grow. In Europe and the United States, green is the color most commonly associated with nature, youth, spring, hope and envy. The fact that in old Chinese, Thai, old Japanese, and Vietnamese, the same word can mean either blue or green, is very interesting. In legends, folk tales and films, fairies, dragons, monsters, and the devil are often shown as green. This color could be only worn  by merchants, bankers and the gentry and their families in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (The Mona Lisa wears green in her portrait, as does the bride in the Arnolfini portrait by Jan van Eyck.)