Two Random Colors on a Flag

Proggattom Progga :
The Bangladesh flag is made of two solid, simple, but bold colors: red and green. Its simplistic design leaves many to wonder what such two random colors symbolize for such a country. But these colors aren’t random.
Green. Green is often connected to nature, wealth, and balance. The green on the Bangladesh flag indeed symbolizes nature, but in a much more complex way than one might think. The deep, dark-hued green symbolizes the blend of the 700+ blue rivers and the beaming yellow sun, creating the calming landscape of lush greenery and fertile land that spreads all 57,320 square miles through Bangladesh.

This land is where the grains of rice come from, which are then boiled and fed to us by our mothers, holding their delicate hands up to our mouths, whispering sweet words with calming hums to make us open our mouths so we can become big and healthy. This land provides us a huge variety of agriculture, from red spicy peppers and mustard, which are put in every dish that a Bangladeshi American like me can’t handle, to mangos and coconuts, fruits eaten and drunk to refresh one’s hot evening caused by the country’s hot and humid climate. The green on this flag signifies the green grass that’s in between our brown toes and leads us to our village or city homes, allowing us to become surrounded by our siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins—that one cousin that’s the child of your grandma’s cousin’s cousin nephew. The list goes on. The green also symbolizes hope. Hope for a better future. Hope for a harmonic country. Hope for a wiser generation.
Red. Red is often connected to anger, danger, and conflict, but to Bangladeshis, red symbolizes something entirely different. The rich and saturated, almost blood-like red symbolizes the bloodshed of the freedom fighters during the 1971 Liberation War. It honors the sacrifice, suffering, and courage of those who fought for the country’s independence, but not only through the war. It honors those who had the courage to go against those who abuse their power to oppress, like the students who risked their lives during the Language Movement of 1952. The red circle also represents unity. It represents how all Bangladeshis see the same big, bright, circular reddish sun, no matter who they are and where they are. It represents how we’re all united through the pride for our country, through our cultures, through our religions, through our traditions, and especially through our language. This same rising sun symbolizes freedom and the rise of a new beginning. It suggests dawn after a long night, a future that finally belongs to its people.
This red and green flag is what connects all Bengalis together. No matter how different we are, this flag and its symbolism will forever be seen through all Bengalis. The Bangladeshi flag is seen within my grandfather, who saw the red himself and is the embodiment of the color red through his experience as a freedom fighter within the war and through his courage to speak his mind about the injustice that goes on within the country and his community. But the Bangladeshi flag is seen within me too, even though I’m thousands of miles away: by embodying my Bengali culture and traditions and speaking my home language, by eating the white rice with collections of curries and fish, provided by the green lands of Bangladesh, which I too was fed by my mother’s delicate hands. All Bengalis have seen the same: the rising, round, crimson red sun connected to a vast land of vibrant green.