What is the significance of the color gray in the novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope?

The color gray is symbolic of transitory and undefined states. It is sometimes shown in conjunction with sea and beaches, as when Mina describes the sea on the day the refugee boat on which Sumaiya and her family are traveling lands: “Grayness, soft as amnesia, blanketed the sea” (46). The reference to amnesia further connects the setting to memory and the past. The photo showing Mazen and Mina together on a beach in their youth is also described as gray.