Friday, September 12, 2008

Green But Not With Envy

Unlike most Human Beings, the hot and humid climate of Wakayama is ideal for many little critters. Critters such as spiders (BIG ones too!), giant centipedes ("MUKADE"), snakes, and many beautiful/interesting frogs and insects as well.
Of all the colors in the spectrum, none is as closely associated with nature as green. Green is my favorite color. These days many people are going "Green". However, for thousands of years green has been the preferred color among a multitude of animals. Why is that? Well, plants are for the most part green. Plants serve as habitats and food for animals. Within these vast green "homes" and "salads" animals have taken to eating each other as well. That's called the food chain. Today I eat a fillet of fish. Yesterday that fish ate a smaller fish which had eaten a shrimp. Just before being ingested by the smaller fish, our shrimp friend was munching on a tiny fish.....and this just keeps going! So the name of the game is "see no me, eat no me". This is why the Japanese Tree frog (Nihon Amagaeru) and Oriental Long-Headed Locust (Shouryou-Batta) below are predominantly green. It is not a matter of envy, but a matter of survival through non-detection.


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