Green (Ancient Egyptian name 'wahdj') was the color of fresh growth, vegetation, new life, and resurrection (the latter along with the color black). The hieroglyph for green is a papyrus stem and frond.
Green was the color of the 'Eye of Horus', or 'Wedjat', which had healing and protective powers, and so the color also represented well-being. To do 'green things' was to do behave in a positive, life affirming manner.
When written with the determinative for minerals (three grains of sand) 'wahdj' becomes the word for malachite, a color which represented joy.
As with blue, the Ancient Egyptians could also manufacture a green pigment – verdigris (Ancient Egyptian name 'hes-byah' – which actually means copper or bronze dross (rust). Unfortunately, verdigris reacts with sulphides, such as the yellow pigment orpiment, and turns black. (Mediaeval artists would use a special glaze over the top of verdigris to protect it.)
Turquoise (Ancient Egyptian name 'mefkhat'), a particularly valued green-blue stone from the Sinai, also represented joy, as well as the color of the sun's rays at dawn. Through the deity Hathor, the Lady of Turquoise, who controlled the destiny of new-born babies, it can be considered a color of promise and foretelling.
