As on my other Piers Anthony covers, the focus for Green Mother is the protagonist of the story. But this character appears only briefly in the story as a mother with green hair--usually she is described as an attractive young adult. That is how I chose to depict her, though the former guise would probably have 'captured the title' better.

I did about five concept renderings for this commission. Four of them featured the lady dancing in various active and flowing poses. The remaining one was rather sedate in comparison: the woman seated, playing the harp, in a woodland scene. I included it with the others I sent to the art director, never thinking that he might choose such a straightforward approach! But that is exactly what he did. I don't see why, even now. In any case, I am quite pleased with the results, so there are no complaints on my part.

Most of my art now is infused with some symbolic or metaphoric elements, and this piece is no exception. Some examples include the flowers—for instance, the red lilies representing the Earth Goddess, regeneration, and immortality, the astronomical symbols for the Earth and Moon in the woman's jewelry, and the little devil-headed snakes on the soundboard of the harp, a reference to her dismayed discovery that she is destined to become Satan's bride. All these are merely supporting elements intended to make the union between artist's and the writer's world more complete on the cover, our point of tangency.