Everything depends on the color of the glass you look through.

Abstract

It is usually said in Spanish that “para gustos, colores” (in English: one man’s meat is another man’s poison). This adage highlights metaphorically that the perception of colours is in our mind. Such colours, which have inspired so many artists and have a great influence in our mood, have their roots in how the brain responds to the stimuli that are produced when incoming light reacts with the several types of photoreceptor cells in the eye. On the other hand, light interacts with a given object in a specific way which depends on its chemical composition, and the perceived colour may also change under different lighting conditions. After analysing all these variables, it would be clear that the colour of things is not as straightforward as it might appear “at first glance”.