white colour and grief
The connection between white and grief falls into the model of the five ellements. Just as Yin and Yang serve to describe the phenomena of the world in a meaningfull way there is another model of classifying things according to 5 categories: Fire ,Earth, Metal, Water and Wood . This classification is most famous in the practice of (Chinese) medicine but it is not restricted only to that discipline. So to make things short (and a little superficial) each ellement has an organ associated with it (for example the liver belongs to the wood ellement), a season (Winter is the season of water) and many other such things. As far as emotions go Anger -Wood Joy-Heart Contemplation-Earth Fear-Water Grief-Metal. For colours, white is the colour of the metal ellement. So here finally is the connection. Of course this still doesn't answer the question because one can ask why were grief and white associated together in the same ellement. So a less shallow explanation is one that will explain the qualities of each element. As martial artists is should be clear to us that metal has to do with separation: It cuts, it defends. So passing judgement or criticising has to do with the metal ellement (by the way this may explain why in its previous life this forum tended to pass harsh and quick judgements). Also when we are made to let go of something or someone this has to do with the metal ellement and here is where grief comes in. As for white this is a bit trickier. One possible explanation is that, as Zeev pointed out, white stands for purity. In it's ideal function, the separation of the metal should leave everything pure. Sorry for writing in English and sorry for not gluing it to the left - I forgot how to do that.