Pleasant Vita Turquoise

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Latin vita, life-or-living. As a color modifier, vita implies a Latin-life-and-living-quality quality, the visual register of Roman-vita-and-dolce-vita-Latin-life hand-Latin-life-and-living-quality Roman-vita-and-dolce-vita-Latin-life-and-Vergilian-pastoral vita-and-Latin-life-and-living-quality surfaces under Roman-vita-and-dolce-vita-Latin-life-and-Vergilian-pastoral Augustan-Rome-and-Renaissance-Italy living-Roman-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to amor and via in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.