As I mentioned, in another post, I am a semi-dedicated, semi-amateur ...   MY take on the 'Forty Shades Of Green' :

Excerpted from a 2002 historical fiction, Men Of Honor , Book One of the trilogy, Spokes In The Wheel:

"For an instant, Adon was in another place, reliving events from another time.  He had uttered an angry oath, pronouncing his utter hatred of all English Protestants, living and dead, vowing to fight them, one and all, until his dying breath.  Padraig had chastised his son, for the oath and for the sentiment.

           " What color is the grass o that field?" his father asked.

            "Tis green, Da," Adon replied, slightly bewildered.

            "And what o' the leaves o' the bush, growing up from out of yon stone wall?"

            "Why, tis green as well."  The boy eyed his father, trying to understand the reasoning behind the questions.

           " So are ye saying the colors are one and the same?"

           " No, Da.  They are different."

            "Yet, are they not both green?  Is the one someway more or less green than any other?"  Padraig laughed, enjoying the boys confusion.  "Tis the simplest o' questions, as often have the most complex o' answers.  Once, I heard a man claim as Ireland ha forty shades o green!"

            "So there are forty different greens, Da?"  Adon asked, still trying to grasp the sense of Padraigs lecture.

           " I do not know if there be forty, or forty thousand, son.  What matters is to ken that there is never just the one.  Surely, God knows the number and name o' each, but the brains o' poor mortals such as us are too lazy and too weak to match that feat.  Were every shade o' every color to have a name o' its own, that would add up to a mighty number, far too grand as any man might hold.  We are simple folk, and so we make it simple.  All the shades o' any one color, we lump together and call it by that name."

            "And what do colors ha to do with the English?"  Adon asked, still unsure.

            "Do not judge any man by what he is, Adon.  Judge them only by who they are."

Bob