Green is the color of nature, luck, life, and fresh starts.

But it's also the color of poison, decay, jealousy, sickness, toxic sludge, unlucky race cars, suspicious theater costumes, and one beautifully-deadly pigment some people decided to put absolutely everywhere.

In this episode of Cursed...ish, Daniel and Angela embark on a new technicolor cursed journey with Cursed Colors: Green, exploring why green has been treated as eerie, unlucky, dangerous, and maybe just a little bit cursed throughout history.

From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare’s green-eyed monster, fae folklore, and theater superstitions to Carl Wilhelm Scheele’s vivid arsenic-based pigment, we follow green from myth and symbolism into the very real poison hiding in Victorian wallpaper, artificial flowers, clothing, books, cosmetics, toys, and more.

Along the way, we talk Scheele’s Green, poisoned wallpaper, Matilda Scheuer, William Morris, Queen Victoria, the Poison Book Project, Oscar Wilde’s green carnation, and why humans keep looking at beautiful dangerous things and asking, “Can we put this everywhere?”

Maybe green is life. Maybe green is death. Maybe green is mold, magic, jealousy, and wallpaper that can quietly gas you in your own home. Maybe cursed. Maybe not.

https://hyperallergic.com/death-by-wallpaper-alluring-arsenic-colors-poisoned-the-victorian-age/

https://www.slam.org/blog/arsenic-in-victorian-wallpaper/

https://www.jalopnik.com/how-the-color-green-became-a-deadly-bad-luck-superstiti-1763008917/

https://vaulteditions.com/blogs/news/poisoned-pages-the-lethal-legacy-of-19th-century-book-design

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3179678/

https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2021/05/30/poor-little-greenie-faeries-and-little-green-men/

Questions, comments, or your own accursed tales to share? Send us a hex at uhoh@cursedish.com.

The hosts of Cursed...ish are not responsible for any misfortunes that may befall you while listening to this podcast. By listening to Cursed...ish, you assume all risk of bad luck, ill omens, and unexplained catastrophes.

*Terms and conditions may be upheld by unknown forces.