I know when we “see” a rose we see the light that is reflected back into our eyes. If it is red light we see a red rose. If what we “see” is the red light then what color is the rose in reality?
In reality, ‘color’ is something we see in our eyes, and that’s all. Color is symbolic of some quality of the rose, but the experience of redness is not directly comparable to this quality.
Asking your question would be a bit like asking, “Words have the meaning our brains interpret them to have, the meaning is not ‘built in’ to the words themselves. So, what does a STOP sign really say?”
In all actuallity all matter is colorless. The petals and stem of the rose absorb all rays of light (colors) of the visible spectrum EXCEPT the trademark red and green (which is why it is reflected away and back into your eyes).
it is a frequency pattern that your eyes percieve as red by absorbing (thereby measuring the intensity) some of the wavelengts with receptors and composing an indicator from that information, colour
the colour of a flower is not respresentative at all to the entire spectrum of radiation she reflects and emits, even within the visible area of frequencies
a red rose will always absorb at least some red light as well, but it’s the relatively high intensity in the red frequency area towards the others … well, you get the idea