Karen Bassey's "Envy" treats the feeling like a creature we all know but rarely admit to. The speaker opens with a twist on a familiar idea: envy is "greener than an apple," a playful nod to the old link between envy and the color green. From there the tone darkens. Envy is "greater than fear" and "scarier than death," bold claims that suggest it can grip us harder than anything else.
The short, blunt lines feel like a list of charges. Envy is a "road path to hatred," it has "no cure," and it "feeds on our desires," so wanting something is what keeps it alive. The ending is the most striking part. After describing envy as something frightening and outside us, the speaker turns inward: "In me / And in you too." That shift makes the mood confessional and a little uncomfortable. The poem doesn't point a finger at someone else; it admits that everyone, including the speaker and the reader, carries this feeling.