淡い: pale pink and a memory like a faint shadow
Compare the sky's pale pink with a childhood memory remaining like a faint shadow in 淡い. Preserve the simile and the memory's continued presence without inventing a physical shadow or complete forgetting.
The sky turns pale pink
淡い (あわい) can describe a pale color. 「空が淡い桃色に染まった。」 means “The sky turned pale pink.” 淡い modifies 桃色, and the sky is what takes on that color. The adjective identifies the color's pale quality.
This color scene does not supply a particular time of day or an exact color measurement. 染まった reports the sky's change. Keep the pale pink tone and the sky as the subject rather than adding details about when or how intensely the change occurred.
A childhood memory remains like a faint shadow
「子どもの頃の記憶が淡い影のように残っている。」 means “My childhood memory remains like a faint shadow.” The central subject is the memory. 淡い影のように describes its faintness by comparing it with a shadow.
影のように is a simile, not a report of a physical shadow appearing. Nor does the memory become an object visible in front of the speaker. 残っている states that the memory remains, so the sentence is also different from complete forgetting.
Distinguish a pale color from a memory's simile
In the sky example, a pale tone describes an observable color. In the memory example, 淡い影 provides the image used to describe the memory. Look at 桃色 and 影のように to see how the same adjective participates in a color description and a comparison.
The faint-shadow simile describes how clear the memory is while preserving its continued presence. Do more than identify a shared idea of paleness: the sky turned a color, while the memory remains. Reading those verbs helps keep an actual color apart from a figurative image.
Does the childhood memory remaining 「淡い影のように」 mean that a physical shadow appeared?
Show the answer and why
No. A memory that still remains faintly is compared with a shadow. 影のように expresses the simile, and 残っている keeps the memory's continued presence.