What do you call as colors?

Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams. 

Paul Gauguin

What is color? The dictionary says it as:

Color (n): the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the objects reflect or emit light.

We won’t see what they are, just what they reflect/project -Colors are the best examples for this saying. Sometimes it makes me think more about the color and composition of things. It feels like some Maya is binding our eyes and mind.

Physics says that an object is of a specific color when it reflects that color. It means that any object absorbs every other color than the one we see on it!

What did we learn about primary colors and mix them in different compositions to get new colors? Does it mean that we develop opposite color-absorbing shades so that the required color gets reflected?

What about the paints? The red-colored paint is the one that does not absorb red so that the thing we coat it with looks red?  It means apple contains every color from the spectrum except red so that only the red light gets reflected from its surface.

So what appears to us is just the opposite of the colors that object has absorbed from the light?

Thinking more about colors makes me think of the whole world of colors as an illusion. What we see, what it is, what it appears, what we perceive, and what word we use for describing the colors, the feeling it triggers in different people- all are different!

It seems like black and white are the only true colors, as white reflects all the colors, and black absorbs everything. However, if I think of different shades, finish, depth, brightness, and other aspects of black & white, it takes me to another world of wonders.

Oops! Should we think this much about colors and get confused with the creations of nature? Or choose to be grateful for the array of colors bestowed on us and for the capacity of our eyes that allows us to enjoy the vibrant colors of life?

—Anitha KC