Celadon

Working with oriental rugs, I often try to describe colors with words that are precise as well as beautiful and exotic, like cinnabar, persimmon, pomegranate, aubergine, saffron -- and celadon. Fact is, the word comes from a glaze used by potters in the Far East and I never really knew what it looked like.

One day I looked at Misha, our Siberian cat, and realized that the wonderful iridescent color of his eyes was -- not chartreuse, but celadon!