In addition to the above you can use a RE perlre and do:

if ( $color =~ m/^(red|green|blue)$/ ) { blah };

# a common perl idiom is:
my @colors = qw( red green blue pink fuscia );
my $color_re = join '|', @colors;
$color_re = qr/$color_re/;  # compile RE for efficiency

if ( $color =~ m/^(?:$color_re)$/ ) { blah }
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Note the ?: stops capturing the color matched in the RE in $1

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print