Posted by WORD Becoming, Spiritual Reflections by Fr Roderick Salazar SVD (Philippines)
GREEN again.
Mostly green, fresh, hopeful green surrounds us now.
Gone are the red and orange flames of the fire trees,
dried by the sun, blown away by the summer wind or
flushed down by early September and October rains.
Not quite the Green Mansions of youthful dreams.
But GREEN.
All we have where I am, no autumn colors here.
VERDE QUE TE QUIERO VERDE comes to mind.
Romance Sonambulo by Federico Garcia Lorca:
“VERDE que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
Y el caballo en la Montana.”
GREEN, how I want you, green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea.
And the horse on the mountain.
Our own Nick Joaquin has his own version.
His, though, with the personal pronoun Yo inserted.
And the Spanish, only in the title:
VERDE, YO TE QUIERO, VERDE:
Color of green: I love you: Green.
(Red SCORCHES, White Has whips; Blue Bites.)
The river-cool sea-serpent skin
Of your deep arms enfolds my flesh in silence.
….You are its whisper of Eden, Queen
Crowned over color:
Color of Green,
I love you!
Songs now enter the picture.
The ever-popular GREEN FIELDS sung by the Brothers Four.
And GREEN LEAVES OF SUMMER which they also sang,
And GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME by Tom Jones.
“Once there were green fields, kissed by the sun
Once there were valleys where rivers used to run
Once there were blue skies with white clouds high above
Once they were part of an everlasting love
We were the lovers who strolled through green fields.
Green fields are gone now, parched by the sun
Gone from the valleys where rivers used to run
Gone with the cold winds that swept into my heart
Gone with the lovers who let their dreams depart
Where are the green fields that we used to roam…
A sad. nostalgic song, really. With a tinge of hope:
You can’t be happy when your heart’s on the roam
You can’t be happy until you bring it home
home to the GREEN FIELDS and me once again…”
GREEN LEAVES OF SUMMER has a haunting melody, too.
From the movie THE ALAMO that starred John Wayne,
the song is by Dimitri Tiomkin. With echoes of Ecclesiastes.
“A time to be reapin’, a time to be sowin’.
The green leaves of Summer are callin’ me home.
‘Twas so good to be young then, in a season of plenty,
When the catfish were jumpin’ as high as the sky.
A time just for plantin’, a time just for ploughin’.
A time to be courtin’ a girl of your own.
‘Twas so good to be young then, to be close to the earth,
And to stand by your wife at the moment of birth….”
A time just for plantin’, a time just for ploughin’.
A time just for livin’, a place for to die.
‘Twas so good to be young then, to be close to the earth,
Now the green leaves of Summer are callin’ me home.
‘Twas so good to be young then, to be close to the earth,
Now the green leaves of Summer are callin’ me home.
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF — HOME is even sadder:
The singer sees home. But…
“Then I awake and look around me
At four grey walls that surround me
And I realize, yes, I was only dreaming
For there’s a guard and there’s a sad old padre
Arm in arm, we’ll walk at daybreak
Again I touch the green, green grass of home
Yes, they’ll all come to see me
In the shade of that old oak tree as they lay me
‘neath the green, green grass of home.”
VERDE QUE TE QUIERO VERDE.
You remind me of HOME.
Perhaps this is why the Catholic Liturgical color used the
longest is GREEN. Color of Eden. HOME.
Reminder where we were first placed, cast out from,
but where we are meant to return but call it HEAVEN.
WHITE is for the Solemnities of our Lord, of Mother Mary,
of holy men and women (though we also have Marian BLUE).
VIOLET is for the preparatory seasons for the Lord’s Great Feasts:
ADVENT looking forward to Christmas, LENT, towards EASTER.
RED is for PENTECOST, Descent of the Holy Spirit,
and for Martyrs, saints who shed their blood for the faith.
ROSE or PINK for the third and fourth Sundays in Advent and Lent,
respite from PURPLE, smile-ful with hope.
Ah, but GREEN for most of the time between Solemnities and Feasts.
This year, 2020, our Green will be used till the 33rd week of
the Liturgical Year, the middle of November, and then we
celebrate with Regal White, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
on November 22 to end the present cycle of celebrations
and start a new one with Advent.
The CIRCLE OF LIFE. In color.
Today I shall look at the colors all around me.
Colors of nature. People who bring color to my life.
And with e.e. cummings, say:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any — lifted from the no
of all nothing — human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
****
