'Aubergine'

There is a color that sits between purple and brown and red and refuses to be any of them completely. The French named it after the eggplant. It is the color of something almost ripe, almost dramatic, almost dark — and entirely itself. Dark purple carrot blooms know this color from the inside out. They bloom in it without apology, dahlia shards alongside them with the same conviction, deutzia leaves providing the green that makes everything else make sense.

This is a piece for a little girl who already knows what beautiful means — who chooses the aubergine over the pink without needing to explain why. She is five or eight or twelve, and she already has opinions about color. This is for her.

For the girl who has always preferred the interesting color.