<div class="quote"><i>Winterfirstsnow* wrote:
The thing is "earth" doesn't only refer to dirt (usually brown or orange/reddish), the earth also has connotations with growth, health, and nature which is green. Brown isn't a great color for symbolism.... just because its a neutral (so is gray). I would assume that yellow/orange indicates happiness, although we should probably mention that yellow *is* the color of hope.</i></div>
<p>Those are western associations for earth. The ancient chinese, for instance, saw vegetation as a different element, more intricately associated with air and wind. To them, earth was the quintessence, the primal element from which all others sprang form, which is why yellow, their colour of majesty and honour, is often said to be "where yin and yang sprang forth from". And they viewed it as actual earth, as dirt and rocks.
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</p><p>Same in Avatar. Earthbenders can't bend wood or generate vegetation. Remember, modern western associations are not universal. White in China is the color of death, black the one of neutrality.
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