Blue. A Colour or a Pigment...

♫ Blue... We go paint de town blue... Turn the whole world upside down...

Looking at the colour blue always makes me think of the Rapso group 3Canal and their J'Ouvert Band in which I played Mas' -  as an impish Blue Devil with a pitchfork and wire tail, no less - on a fine Carnival Monday morning during the 90s.

The above lyrics from their wildly infectious tune never fails to put me in a kind of a festive, gamboling mood - you have to watch the video in order to feel the feeling, if you know what I mean.

Blue also makes me think of those little Reckitt's Crown cubes of blue crystalline detergent that West Indian grandmothers drop into their washtubs, in order to make their whites really bright.

As I remember it, one only had go to the corner shop and ask for 'a Blue' and the shopkeeper knew exactly what you were talking about.

'Blue Soap', however, referred to the larger, rectangular cake soap that was a sort of all-purpose cleaner: I've seen folks use it for everything from scrubbing dirty shoes to cleaning carpets.

The shade also brings up thoughts of 'cutting' evil, or as Trinidadians would say, Maljo; the aforementioned cube of Reckitt's was apparently - and strangely enough - also used by some cultures in their rituals.

Of late though, blue simply reminds me of obscenely bright nail polish, and these sandals I got a summer or two ago whilst vacationing in Leuven...

Wearing: DIDI Sandals; Anvers pegged trousers; Sally Hansen Pacific Blue Polish

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