Colour Exercise: Green

You sit in front of the astrologer, eyes anxious, as his eyes pore over the spider-web of your palm. “Emeralds,” he says, drawing out a selection that winks up at you like the eyes of so many snakes—too many Harry Potter references chasing themselves in your skull. “Emeralds assist in intelligence,” he insists, and you frown over the cost and pick the smallest—the cheapest—and it gleams against your skin like rain-washed leaves.

“Emeralds for intelligence,” you mutter, and pay him with figuratively green money for your green stone that has nothing to do with wealth at all.