“It was blue, all blue, blue was the colour of the Cape.” –Marlene Van Niekerk, ‘To Behold the Cape’
Blue is the colour of the two oceans that surround Cape Town, twisting the little peninsula of land between Indian and Atlantic currents. It is the colour of Table Bay, which from certain vantage points, the whole city seems ready to slide into. It is the colour of the vast, empty sky that lies open above the city on clear days. And it appears even in the land, in the rocks of the flat-topped mountain that defends the city, so that seen from a distance, the city itself seems but a thin ribbon between blue water, blue earth, and blue sky.
Though its winters may be gray and dreary, the Cape is much better known for its golden summers. With the open sky and dry air, the sun is free to penetrate every corner of the Cape, filling the City Bowl and soaking the beaches. Perhaps it was in honor of this that the early Dutch settlers plastered the Cape Castle, their sea-front fortress, in an appropriately flaxen hue. The Castle must have set the tone for the style of the new settlement, and the colour brightens up much of the city's early colonial architecture. Thankfully, the shade has also been carried through to the modern day, where it still reflects back the warm light of the sun.
