Cities and colors

In the city of 24 colors, its houses, its palaces, cafés with tables outside on the sidewalks along narrow streets, the pigeon infested statues of heroes on public squares, the scissors in the tailor’s shop, and the temples all change their colors every hour of the day. At noon everything is white. At four o’clock in the morning the rooftops are all a cool blueish purple. At sunset everything is orange while at dawn everything turns black. But like any other city, the city of 24 colors is not without its slight imperfections. Sometimes, on a rare day, they say that the city turns green instead of red at 3 o’clock.

Like clockwork, at the strike of each hour the city marks the passage of time — its own passage of time — with a change in its color. In the city of 24 colors there is no need to ask somebody else for the time because it is never 3 o’clock or 5 o’clock in the afternoon or morning or night but red, green, orange or black.

The city of 24 colors is a city that doesn’t believe in subtleties or nuances. It likes its certainties. The city never turns gray because gray is subtle and nuanced. It is not really black nor really white. The word gray or even the very idea of the color gray does not exist in their vocabularies nor in their minds. The people of this city can think only in 24 colors. But in reality they think in only one color at a time. At the strike of each hour, all the previous colors become memories.

It is said that in such a city it is better not to have favorite colors. The people who like to eat their apples when they are red have to suffer and wait for the passage of 23 colors to be able to eat their apples when they are red. Those who have favorite colors suffer. It is said that the happiest people in the city of 24 colors are the color-blind. They do not get confused when sometimes, on a rare day, the city turns green instead of red at 3 o’clock. All they see are different shades of grey. They do not suffer for red apples nor for green spinach. They are happier because they believe in subtleties and nuances of the color gray.