The Blue

Mycenna interrupta by Bulletin of The Queensland Mycological Society Inc Vol 12 Issue 2, Winter 2017

When I was in elementary school, my art teacher asked me to draw a landscape. As usual, I drew a mountain, a lake, and birds flying in the sky with simple lines. I was used to drawing mountains in green, and I also colored the lake, rivers, and seas blue. The mountains were green because there were many plants and trees there, and the atmosphere was always refreshing. So, what about the rivers and lakes that were blue?

The Reality and the Expression of Blue I went to a beach once, and along its shore, there were many stones with strange black creatures on top of them. They crawled back to the sea, which, surprisingly, was not blue at all. The rivers in West Java and South Sumatra were not blue either. That sight made me wonder: if I had seen blue seas and rivers, they would seem so pure, for sure. That color began to flood my mind, from just a curiosity about rivers to a language I thought only I understood when judging others. A blue river and a blue sea, from just a drawing, transformed into a hope to see them in reality. Although they are hard to find, if they do exist, their color would surely touch the heart. Even though it’s difficult for something to be pure, when something small is filled with sincerity, it becomes very beautiful and soothing.

What is Seen in the Blue and How It Feels The color blue, when you see it, is like a sky without clouds on a bright day, majestic when viewed from below, or an endless sea. At that moment, time seems nonexistent, our vision seems to expand, and we feel more knowledgeable and at peace than others. When walking, the eyes may rarely look straight, but in them, there is always a mind busy with its own world. When something taints it, it requires great strength and time to shatter it. Just as vast and strong as the blue, it would be very troublesome to pour other colors into the sky or exhausting to remove the blue from the river and sea.

Blue as a Feeling of Pain “Feeling blue.” An expression that indicates sadness, anxiety, and worry about something. The color is very deep, often gradated until it becomes darker. A color that signifies something hidden and rarely seen. Its presence makes me argue with myself.

Is that also considered blue? Does it still signify purity?