...if it could be of good wood?

I know many of you have built kayaks with several wonderful woods. So here are a few questions:

1) Are there are any woods I *shouldn't* use? Why not?

2) What are some really nice "light vanilla" and "dark chocolate" alternatives?

•• I can use poplar, basswood, pine, yellow cedar, or some of the spruces for the "vanilla" although lengths longer than 16' are difficult to come by.

•• "Chocolate" could be redwood (sometimes), walnut (where can I get the Peruvian of other really dark ones?), wenge (yummm!), machiche, or mangaris. Some of these are pretty hard and all are difficult to get longer than 16'.

3) Anything wrong with a really dark or really light hull?

I was going to use Western Red Cedar for the majority of the hull but then I thought...

•• I really like the two-tone look of commercial composite boats - usually a bright deck over a white hull with a dark shearline stripe...

•• Joe's stunning King on the Redfish website has a predominantly dark hull, at least above the waterline...

•• I saw Bill Price's website and the predominantly yellow Silver he built for Beth. Wow!

•• Jay Doorly recently reminded us to "rethink dark (seal-colored) hulls" :-)

So what are the pros and cons of dark and light?

Thanks for any suggestion/comments,

Glenn