Green vs Red, Up vs Down; both do seem like extremely simple matters to interpret into a correct action of the control. And for most of us they almost always would be. Problems can arise when the landing has issues such that the pilot becomes 99.9% focused on people walking across the runway, strong crosswinds, low altitude or any of a number of other special circumstances or combinations of distractions. The remaining 0.1% mental processing power that's reserved for matters of routine may be less than sufficient to correctly establish where the landing gear control should be set.

A better way, I think, is to provide yourself with checklist instruction requiring no interpretation whatsoever: Ballast Lever Forward; Landing Gear Forward.

This still leaves the crucial problem of getting onto the right control. But, at least, there is no processing required to get the sense correct.