I quite like iron.

I like the redness of blood, and the orangeness of rust.

I like that it forms complexes, that it is involved in electron transport in mitochondria; and is used in catalysts.

That is magnetic.

And that it is pretty much everywhere. 

I like the idea of "pig iron". 

I have a happy memory of saying to my daughter every morning: "F is for Ferrous Fumarate".

Yes. Iron.

Carbon comes second. Because I like drawing hexagons. And organic chemistry gave me the chance to draw quite a lot of these.