The photo is very special to me because it was my best and final work drawing with pencil and paper.

I had just gone through a learning curve using a thirty-day drawing book after my then friend and to be soulmate whose works I admired so much (she is a professional artist) had motivated me to start drawing. I was yet to venture into any sort of digital painting then and had no idea about my future in arts; I just knew I wanted to draw or be an artist and she told me I had to start from somewhere.

I learned to draw various elements, structures, animals, and styles (I exhausted about three large drawing books) but this was my most precious work.

Not only because it reminds me of her eyes (we have never seen in real but I love her more than life). Read more in my book, AFROLEON, and the various poems I dedicate to her frequently.

I love the painting because of the time I expended on it, the realism, the realistic feel, the reflection, and how I can imagine her looking at me with her left eye whilst a light reflects from somewhere. I feel her in my veins whenever I look at the reflective structure at the right top corner of ‘her’ eye.

Patience, Passion, and Persistence are what she taught me through this drawing and what I feel and see whenever I imagine myself looking into her soul or into the rainbow that reflects from it.