The background color is Red showing the amount of healthcare there is in Cook County and to show that the color Red is also important since it also represents Chicago because it’s also in the county. The blue stripes in the background represent the bodies of water in Cook County such as Lake Michigan, Salt Creek, and the Chicago River and the blue is the same shade as the Chicago flag since the city of Chicago is in Cook County. The leaf in the middle represents all the nature preserves and forests in Cook County and the size of the leaf shows that they are pretty big in size compared to other forests and preserves in other counties.