Blue and white. Or turquoise, perhaps. Those are the colours most often talked about when it comes to the Caribbean. Turquoise water that’s crystal clear. Blue skies. White sand. Hot, bright, blazing sun.

Yet to my surprise, the colour that washed over me while in Antigua  – was  green.

Green fields that sighed with the breeze while children ran through them like skaters on ice.

Green pineapple tops with a rusty-pink hue, popping up row after row, and hugging the gentle, rolling horizon.

Green daggers from palms attacking pillars at Nelson’s historic Dockyard.

And most of all, green in the gardens at Galley Bay.

Grow Your Own in Galley Bay

Like many a Caribbean resort, Galley Bay excelled with ocean view rooms, soft sand and sensuous spas. But they also bathed in green.

Green sheltered pathways from the rooms to the pool. Green courted lakeside cycle paths and an outdoor spa on stilts rested amid a jungle of green.

And although it took me a while to notice, the food itself was green.

The Galley Bay Garden, Antigua

Grow-your-own has become a popular catchphrase of late but I’ve seen few places take it so far or do it so well as the gardens in Galley Bay.

In a place that could have served as a film set for the Garden of Eden, fragrant lemongrass, dill and parsley sprouted up like the feathers of a bird. Ripening tomatoes bulged and a twist of the fingers brought the fresh scent of coriander into the sticky sun-filled air.

Hands burrowed into a deep brown earth, resurfacing with leafy produce held high as an offering to the sun.

As I clicked and snapped on, I could hear my camera talking back to me.

Yes, it said, there’s no doubt about it: the colour of Antigua is green.

Disclosure : I visited Antigua as a guest of Elite Island Resorts and British Airways. As ever, as always, I kept the right to write about whatever I liked. Otherwise, I’d take a better paid job in marketing and sales ;-)

I did love my time in Galley Bay, though. If you’d like to book a trip there, you can do so here.