shade of trees; leafy shade
Refers to the cool, pleasant shade created by the foliage of trees. Often used in literary or poetic contexts.
夏の午後、緑陰で本を読むのが好きだ。
On summer afternoons, I like to read a book in the shade of the trees.
shade tree
Standard kanji form using 陰 (shade).
Variant using 蔭, which also means shade. Less common but still encountered.
Compound of 緑 (ryoku, 'green') and 陰 (in, 'shade'). The variant 緑蔭 uses the character 蔭, which also means shade and is sometimes used interchangeably with 陰 in this context.