A searching definition for the precise shade of California poppies, as recalled in Steinbeck’s East of Eden.  Not orange, you understand, but golden cream.

And mixed with these were splashes of California poppies. These too are of a burning color – not orange, not gold, but if pure gold where liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.

See two other exhilarating descriptions of beauty from the same book, one of the lushness brought by abundant rain, the other concerning the memories, names and smells of nature imprinted in the child’s mind. 

Source: John Steinbeck, East of Eden (London: Penguin Classics, 2000), p. 8

Photo credit: Iswaters1968 at pixabay