Tennyson used it for the widespread carpet of the land.
A livelier emerald sparkles in the grass.
In a lighter vein, it has been used to suggest the color of unripe fruit, as in Eugene Field’s verses on the peach:
A little peach in an orchard grew,
A little peach of emerald hue;
Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew,
It grew.
The green of the emerald makes it, in many minds, the most beautiful of colored gems.