It sounds like a zen koan – a twisted mind riddle that fritzes you brain into nothingness – but it was just a question that came up in conversation.

What colour is watermelon?

Is it the popular pink-red of last summer’s must-have frock?

Or is it the brilliant green of a golf course?

The room was split.

And then the qualifications came.

“Well, it depends. Do you mean the colour ‘watermelon’ or watermelon, the fruit?”

“Watermelon, the colour, is red.”

“No, but if you went to the shop for watermelon, you would be looking for something that is green.”

And on it went.

Red. Green. Both.

The colour of watermelon now comes to mind whenever I’m discussing a contentious issue.

You cannot have rich without poor.

Gay marriage is needed. The abolition of marriage is needed.

My cat is the cutest bundle of fur in the universe. At 5.00am, my cat is NOT the cutest bundle of fur in the universe.

The existence of one condition, or its imagining, brings forth its opposite – the Not.

It is one of the essentials of Taoism.

Yin. Yang. Light and dark. Feminine and masculine. Active and yielding.

The seemingly opposite exist together in all things – and it’s the harmony of these opposite (or complementary) conditions that creates the dynamic we call life.

It’s like the colour of watermelon. Each of us sees things differently. Context is so important. Not all things are as they appear on the surface.

So, what say you?

What colour is watermelon?