Our Lady, Mother of Sweet Sorrow 3

 Our Lady's veil is green, which is somewhat unusual in religious art.  In most cultures green indicates new life and growth.  This is why green is used for the color of the vestments in the Byzantine Church during the Pentecost season.  Some of the Eastern rites also use green during the feasts which venerate the Holy Cross.
Since I was meditating on the sweet sorrow of death during the making of this icon, I wanted the colors to indicate hope and new life in death, the loving embrace of our Mother in the next world.  Yes, we lose our loved one, but there is new life in Christ through death, a life which blesses and elevates the first.
It is fitting that it be our Lady who wears the green since it is through her that this new Life comes to us, Jesus Christ.  It is Mary's veil which is green, because if hair is the glory of a woman and should be covered, hair represents the glory of heaven (but those of us without hair should not despair!  It is symbolism!).  This may seemed far fetched, but we always veil what is most precious to us.  The Holy of Holies was always veiled.  Heaven is veiled to us until after we die. 
We fear death, but should not.  In Christ death means nothing more than the passage to life.  "By death He conquered death, and to those in the graves He granted life." - Byzantine prayer at Easter.