What is the meaning of the colour green? It is the colour of springtime, of fresh grasses and unripe fruits. Did you know that in nature, green pigments indicate chlorophyll, the chemical of photosynthesis, by which plants turn sunlight into fuel? Fittingly green is the colour of environmental activists worldwide.
It stands for ‘go’ when you’re stuck at traffic lights or other stops. And despite all of its associations as the herald of burgeoning life and proliferating hope, in the arts green from the time of Shakespeare has been a symbol of envy. In Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, green is at once a beloved and a hateful colour. One becomes fond and then not fond of green.
When it comes to water, green has been the preserve of the stomach-sick sailing over choppy seas. Yet Rio 2016 has given another hue to the colour as it abuts or combines with the wet stuff. For as the diving schedule progressed at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center this week, the Olympic diving pool turned green overnight, quite a change from the usual lustrous blue!
The lurid green, in a shade which can only be described as radioactive, was first blamed on rapidly multiplying algae, then on an excess of alkaline causing an imbalance in the water’s pH. Other theories – urine, a deliberate attempt to replicate the Brazilian flag, leakage from the nearby advertising hoardings – were swiftly dismissed. Divers were understandably baffled, but brave in the face of such incertitude, some noted that the green surface offered a useful mid-air contrast as they flipped and turned and their vision flickered between the water and the blue sky above.
Rio officials alleged that the water was still safe to enter, but as the green spread to the nearby pool for water polo and synchronised swimming, competitors complained about stinging eyes and the impossibility of following the movements of their teammates beneath the murk. The water polo ball was tossed out of the play as often as towards goal, and typically well-synchronised routines fell absurdly out of sync.
No diver yet has been swallowed whole by the gloop, and limbs are unviewable but apparently not untethered as they waft within the swamp. So though the pool has been briefly closed for training purposes as officials seek to restore the right shade to the Olympic Games, there is no indication that events at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center won’t continue broadly as planned.
