gān
related components & characters
[object Object]
classical translation
sweet
ecological image
a hole in the earth with a seed in it
A hole in the earth with a seed placed inside. The sweet flavor corresponds to earth and putting a seed in the ground is analogically like putting food into the mouth. The mouth was also associated to the earth because of its location at the bottom of the face, with the eyes being like the lateral leaves of plants, and the nose like a plant stem above the horizontal plane of the earth (the mouth).
nuanced meaning
Earth
In relationship to 目, 甘 is the bottom portion, 口, or the Earth portion of "Heaven-Humanity-Earth." The line across the bottom is the earth plane. The two lines of 二 are shown independently in characters as Heaven or Earth depending on whether they are located on the top or bottom in relation to other components (e.g. 土 or 天). The sweet flavor is a correspondence of earth.