Hawiian Blue

My first wanderings on Oahu were primarily kept to an area between my apartment (hale) and Ala Moana beach park. An easy walk from the ewa side of Punchbowl crater through downtown Honolulu and eventually arriving at Ala Moana beach. Occasional deviations from this well trodden path led to Chinatown for a quick dash in and out of one of the few dozen markets. On the beach, even amongst the sparse crowd of mostly locals, nature offers such an alluring scene of an idyllic paradise that one's first thought is to never return to the previous life on the mainland. Sitting on the beach, or resting in a hammock on Magic Island staring out to the sea, the shades of blue are too easy to take in. The azure tide laps at the sandy shore, and as one gazes towards infinity it will eventually occur that possibly the essence of life is derived from the color blue: liquid blue, pale blue, sky blue, shades of blue separated first by the breakers that cascade on the nearby reef, and then by the horizon. After my car arrived I discovered that each beach is even more enticing. It is quite possible to spend hours doing nothing but to look out at the ocean, interspersed with occasional times of floating in water slightly cooler than the tropical air and stealing glances at the wall of coconut trees leaning over the shoreline which offer a shady respite.
There is also a shade of blue which seems best noticed at sunset, especially when there is a full moon. This I think is impossible to replicate. Photographs, paintings, videos cannot capture this. Luckily it is repeated daily, and this is probably why most Hawaiian homes have a lanai.

Blue is a part of the spirit of Aloha. Without the hues of blue, Aloha would be a little less ubiquitous.