Explaining colors to the blind

I come across this apparently absurd phrase often. The first time I heard about this was during my undergraduate days at Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune. Well, there was this funny "Mr. and Mrs. Sinhgad" competition where the judges asked questions to the contenders in one of the rounds. And one of the questions which was asked to a guy was "how will you describe a rainbow to a blind person?" . The question immediately appealed to me and I lost myself into thoughts. I thought of the obvious answers- about describing the colors by relating to nature, but could not find a satisfactory answer. Today I joined Twitter(out of boredom) and accidentally came across page of Kate Moss. She had tweeted "Trying to explain why I love you is like explaining colors to a blind person." Immediately I lost myself into thoughts, just like before.

What if the person is blind since birth? Imagine you have never seen colors- ever. Forget colors, you haven't seen anything. Is it possible to make a imagery so strong that you can draw colorful paintings in a blind person's brain by just making him hear the words? Probably not. But here is my attempt to do so, just for silencing this old thought at the back of my mind:

Red- The boldest and hottest of all. You feel it when you stand under the scorching sun. You feel it when you are with your love. You feel it when your hand feels the beat of your heart. You feel it when you are tensed.

Blue- The coolest of all. You feel it with the breeze and when you breathe. You feel it when you dip your hands in the cold river and wash your face with it. You feel it when you drink water. The color which refreshes you and makes you feel alive.

Green- The most soothing one. You feel it when you smell grass or perhaps flowers. You feel it when you run your hands through the velvet like farms. It is the color which calms your nerves and which makes you serene. Contradictory to Red, this one takes the pressure off.