Freshwater Literary Journal 2021

Dave Gregory The Power of Yellow A Crayola sixty-four pack allowed the children to pick themes for injecting color into a cloudy day. Tallis, inspired by her father’s Van Gogh print, suggested, “Let’s do yellow today. All yellow.”

Janiel and Susu followed Tallis’s eyes to the framed poster. They looked at each other, nodded, then selected their colors: Banana Mania, Goldenrod, Canary.

They drew the vase, arranged the sunflowers, and were transported to Vincent’s yellow house in southern France, into the room he’d decorated for Gauguin. The three friends didn’t know the story behind the scene but in tangy, scented wax they captured Vincent’s hope and optimism—the same promise that flowed through viscous oils more than a century earlier.

As work progressed, their colors turned darker: Tumbleweed, Burnt Orange, Apricot. Hope diminished. Madness increased.

Janiel asked, “Shouldn’t yellow flowers be brighter?”

“Maybe they were shinier outdoors, waving in the breeze, following the sun,” Tallis replied.

“I have a neon twenty-four pack of crayons in my knapsack,” Susu offered.

“With Laser Lemon and Sunglow, we can draw sunflowers like the ones growing along highway six, every August.”

Their palette brighter and sunnier, a rolling field dominated their second picture. The glow attracted passing travelers on the highway. The children exited their parents’ cars and ran toward the tantalizing crop until the yellows loomed high above, a dark nexus at their center. They entered the field. Light dimmed and luminous shades disappeared, leaving only dank earth, humid undergrowth, and thin sky-blue shards poking through a leafy canopy.

Lost in strangling hues—Forest Green, Asparagus, and Fern—they retreated and abandoned their second drawing.

In a desk that occupied a small nook beside the kitchen, Susu found what they needed to uncover yellow’s unbridled essence: three shimmering highlighters.

“Rapeseed will be friendlier,” he said.

The children didn’t draw a crop but a glare. All three had been mesmerized by blinding yellow fields each spring, manifesting earth’s pure energy. Tallis, Janiel, and Susu kept their heads above the blooms as they explored incandescent fields.

Reflected light glimmered upon their faces. They became the most important sentences in the textbook of life.

The completed art resembled fluorescent yellow paper, floodlit from behind, kissed by sunbeams. It radiated as much texture, vibrance, and emotion as an exploding star.

When it was time to play outside, the children floated in brilliant warm bubbles that transformed the landscape.

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