There aren't official start and end dates for shinryoku (fresh green) in nature. I suppose it depends on the severity of the past winter and the vigor of spring. It's usually around the end of April / beginning of May that plants and trees really explode with life. Their bony winter frames disappear, covered over by new leaves in brilliant, pulsating greens. This can be seen anywhere, of course, but the magic and intensity of shinryoku is best experienced in or around a densely wooded mountainside.
As another Golden Week was drawing to a close I decided to pay the ever lovely Arashiyama a visit. This year being anomalous, there were but a handful of people in Nakanoshima park on the south side of Togetsukyo Bridge. I sat down on the river bank and admired the view. The steep hills beyond the bridge were a painter's pallet of green, the furious labor of a mad artist who could not decide on a hue. I've seen these hills a dozen times before, in every season, but this green…it drew me in, enveloped me. I was spellbound. I tried to look away, but my gaze always returned.
There is a lot of literature, scientific and otherwise, about the effects of the color green on the human body, and there are some reasonable assertions. But regardless of the arguments, clever or ridiculous, there is no denying the great pleasure shinryoku brings as spring's personality shifts from coy to confident.
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