This idea of five elements or five various types can be about all types of things and ideas. For example, with every single element there is one color that is associated with it (metal is snow-white, water is black, wood is green, fire is red, earth is yellow), it is associated with directions (in order, West, North, East, South, Centre), also with one kind of a taste (acrid, salty, sour, bitter, sweet), and familiar related categories for every part of reality that can be imagined. Those are our emotions,the animals, senses of every single human being, everything we eat, etc.
