THE COLOUR GREEN
My country is a hurricane
She swirls her hips like a mad woman
And devours anyone who dares to dance.
She is a wildfire spreading fast,
Her flames, consuming any life form she comes across.
(My country goes really well with bad metaphors.)
She is shameless, unmindful that her name
resonates outside the continent like a church bell rung by a drunk exorcist.
At least, I am ashamed to mention her name.
Here, our lungs are filled with the corruption we breathe each day,
Our ears are withered because of the vain promises the leaders spit from their sugarcoated lips.
But what do they know about the sufferings?
What do they know about the cries that rise from empty stomachs and bereaved chimneys?
Everyday, poverty eats through countless homes and you can still see the marks of its teeth on the walls if you look closely.
Somewhere there is a little girl holding on to the pinkie finger of her mother;
She has dust on her cheeks,
Oil stains on her gown,
And her lower lip is cracked like every street in her home town.
The streets of my hometown are littered with forgotten dreams and lackluster happiness,
With rubber slippers, charcoal stained fingers and roast corn sellers with babies strapped like ammunitions to their aching backs.
Insecurity;
sweeps around, creating an atmosphere of fear and formidable distress.
Religion;
has become a masquerade for both genocide and mendacity
Death;
tiptoes on the mattresses of starving families like a ballet dancer on crumbling ice.
So whenever you call your compatriots, tell them to rise only because their nation has fallen,
Tell them their fatherland is polluted with the blood of nursing mothers and defenseless children.
Ask them how they can dig the earth in search of peace when their hoes and cutlasses do not swing in unity.
My country hovers like a half-winged butterfly,
Lacking the knowledge of how to evolve.
She is an eagle with wings but there are arrows on both her shoulders stopping her from soaring;
For the colour green is weak, fading fast into a canvas of a quenchless, tainted white.
By Samuel Adeyemi
Summary: "The color green" is a very explicit poem with six stanzas. It is written in blank verse, which means the lines do not rhyme and also, it is written in an irregular stanza pattern, this depicts that each stanza has different number of lines.
Stanza one introduces the "country" being discussed in the poem, the country is unnamed but addressed with the pronoun "she" and the poet persona is "ashamed to mention her name"
The first stanza describes her as a "wildfire" which spreads fast and consumes any life form she comes across. This depicts that she harms all, both close and far, it is also mentioned that the country goes really well with bad metaphors.
Stanza two introduces the stagnant problems the country has, describing the state of corruption which "We breathe each day" This stanza also talks about the leaders of this fallen country who are ignorant to the sufferings of its people.
Stanza three is a steady continuation of stanza two, explicitly describing the tainted image of "empty stomachs and bereaved chimneys"
Subject matter: There are many themes in The Color Green, ranging from poverty, distress, pain and sufferings, corrupt governments and then some, although these all revolve around one central idea, "Lost hope for Progress". The entire poem form scratch to finish is a lamentation of the situation in which people of the. Country find themselves.
Symbolism: There is evident use of symbolism in the poem, the poet persona uses an imagery of his hometown, describing it as a place " littered with forgotten dreams" depicting a country where the youths are not empowered but left to wallow in the pit of dreams and aspirations forgone.
Diction: There is an excellent use of wordplay in the poem as the poet uses powerful metaphors to describe issues the country is faced with. For instance, "Insecurity; sweeps around " depicting a notion that the country is drenched in a critical state where the welfare of the people isn't put in any form of consideration.
"Religion; has become a masquerade for both genocide and mendacity" This goes to explore more loopholes in the country's system and the effects it causes.
Recommendations: The poem is deficient of a regular stanza pattern which deduces the beauty of the piece.
"The Color Green" is a very explicit piece, which in its last stanza, compares the country to a half winged butterfly and an eagle, with depreciation features. The poet persona ends the poem on the note that " The color green is weak, fading fast into a canvas of a quenchless, tainted white " The last three lines suggest a feeling of disdain and lost hope in the yielding country.
©Maymunah Kadiri
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