@array = ('key1:value1', 'key2:value2', qw(key3:value3 key4:value4 key5:value5));
# Hope this helps beginners to understand what qw// does...
%hash = map { split /:/, $_, 2 } @array;

##</code><code>##

2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas'
Segmentation fault
2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$