Colour harmony is such a huge subject I was quickly overwhelmed with options.

I eventually decided I was only going to explore Red & Green colour combinations, and only in Mexico, and mostly just within the last two years.

Red & Green are Complementary Colours, opposite each other on the colour wheel. They are also the colours of the Mexican flag, and consequently show up all over Mexico. Two Mexican dancers in traditional costumes with a mariachi playing violin in the background. The male dancer wears a black sombrero embroidered with white and silver, a knife in a scabbard and a red, white and green sash in honour of the Mexican flag. The woman wears a traditional China Poblano costume, the skirt completely covered with sequins and red, white and green ribbons wound up in her hair.Detail of a different China Poblana skirt, a traditional costume from the city of Puebla. The colours are typically red, green and white as the Mexicans do love their flag!The Mexican Day of Independence is September 16, the same time that pomegranates are in season. The traditional dish for the celebration is Chiles en Nogada, a ‘green’ poblano chile covered in a creamy ‘white’ walnut sauce and sprinkled with red pomegranate seeds and green cilantro – it’s the Mexican flag on a plate!As I look through my photos I see that many Mexican meals sport this same combination of green, white and red. So my question is: were the meals inspired by the flag, or was the flag inspired by the meals? This ceviche at Playa Manzanillo in Puerto Escondido has red (plate, tomato, pink table cloth) and green (cilantro, avocado). The tomato and the avocado are both native to Mexico.A very spiny prickly pear cactus with red fruiting ‘tunas’, another red and green traditional food of Mexico, with both the paddles (nopales) and the fruits being edible and very common in many Meso-American dishes. (How to prepare and cook nopales.)Nopales available at stall number 56 in the Merced Market in Mexico City. A de-clawed nopal (dull green) plus the dark red of kidney beans, a traditional breakfast of the indigenous people of Mexico.

Fish & lobster dishes available at a cafe in Puerto Vallarta – a study in a variety of reds & lettuce green. Food stylists often look at the colours of the food and style both the food and the accessories to match.  Taco accompaniments of radishes, limes, pickled vegetable, red hot sauce and even hotter green salsa made with the green ghost chiles at a Tacos Pastor place in Marquelia, Mexico. Chiles, coming in both red and green, are another food that came from Mexico. A shrine decorated with flowers including the impossible December red roses that the Virgen de Guadalupe gave to the peasant Juan Diego as proof of her existence. She is the patron saint of Mexico and her saint’s day is December 12. Red Anthurium at the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Garden. This plant is native to the Americas, ranging from the north of Mexico all the way to northern Argentina. (Some photos and artworks inspired by the Anthurium.)Another native to the tropical Americas is the Bromeliad. The most famous bromeliad is the pineapple which of course came from Mexico. Stromanthe sanguine, with its striking leaves in cream, green and red, is a member of the Maranta or Prayer Plant family Marantaceae, and again its native land are the tropical areas of the Americas ranging from Mexico south to Argentina. Red and green also show up on homes.The green tends more toward lime though. More of the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Colour Harmonies.