The word of the week is 'color' (by Massimo Sebastiani)

In the second half of the 60s, in the so-called

, while everything was changing rapidly and the watchword was experimentation and the wave of

was coming from the United States

also transmitted through

and flowers in the hair, the black color could have only one connotation: the negative, the sadness, the depression.

wrote the lyrics for '

one of the best known songs of the

, thinking and describing the pain and shock of those who have suddenly lost a wife, a lover or a friend. A successful example, also thanks to the always slightly threatening tone of Jagger's voice even on a very pop melody, of the use of color as a metaphor.

60 years have passed and it is clear: in the era of the triumph of minimalism, of clean and essential lines, of figures and environments where black makes everyone agree, that color is above all a symbol of elegance, rigor, balance. To the point of generating the bitter irony of a title that without this context would be incomprehensible:

is a successful TV series that tells the story of a woman who passed from the comfort of Manhattan, where black is a must, to the dimension of prison where the only dress that can be worn is, in fact, orange, a warm and sunny color for antonomasia yet destined for those who have to live in constraint, far from the joys, the glories, the optimism of the previous life.

It is the destiny of color, one of the primary experiences of the human being who will continue to be fascinated and conditioned by it throughout his life, to be used as a metaphor and to enter, also for this reason, in many ways of saying: it gives

(except to discover, in many moments of our life, that it is just the opposite: the truth has a thousand shades) to

which at best means having gone through different phases and experiences. Color accompanies us and marks our existence from the first months: the baby begins to perfectly perceive colors from the fourth month of life and colors accompany him in the process of perception and growth. Pedagogy in general and Steiner's pedagogy in particular, derived from the studies of

attaches great importance to the use of color (as you can understand by entering any kindergarten or a child's room: from circles to cubes to all the other games designed for babies and children is all a triumph of color).

lived between the 19th and 20th centuries, not exactly a scientist - he is considered the founder of anthroposophy, a rather controversial doctrine - is certainly the precursor of modern chromotherapy, which cannot seem to be done without. any spa but also in many practices related to well-being and even psychological health. The essential issue, however, for Steiner is that colors allow the child to experience the emotions that they themselves arouse: strength if it is red, vitality if it is green, the tranquility of blue.

The relationship between colors and emotions, their connection with the dimension that we usually define as spiritual had already been at the center of reflections and writings that made history, from

. The game linked to colors, their possible meaning and their ability to somehow affect our lives has fascinated some of the most prominent figures of modern art and thought. 'Color, like music, uses a shortcut to reach our senses,' wrote

, author of a book entitled

. And in

the Italian

graphic designer

explains that color informs, seduces, narrates, distinguishes, enhances and hierarchizes, just like in the map of the regions at the time of Covid (

).

And, as we have seen, music has also used the reference to color to convey sensations to us. One of the best known, most important and successful rock bands of all time, Pink Floyd (which happens to have a color in the name), in their most famous album,

, which on the cover shows the image of a white light broken down into different colors by a spectrum (to recall white as the sum of the colors, as opposed to black as their absence), dedicate an ironic piece to colors: it is entitled

, it is totally instrumental, and, according to the explanation of

, bassist, composer and leader of the group, he is inspired by an idea of ​​anguish linked to the fact of being able and having to choose between any color while in reality there is only one color.

And also the origin of the word is linked to black: it is the Sanskrit kalanka which means stain, in Latin macula, whose original meaning is empty, lacuna, absence. In Greek

is stain and

is black, dark. But as little truth can be of one color as the colors themselves can change. And to make them change are our emotions, as

sings

.