She Is

Her locs are the colour of deep ocean water — cobalt, indigo, midnight — and they cascade from a headwrap of pink and yellow and blue Ankara print as though the fabric has simply decided to keep going, to become hair, to become weather. Each loc is individual and deliberate, a single brushstroke of intention multiplied into abundance.

She looks at you with wide, impossibly green eyes — the colour of new growth, of things that were buried and came back. There is no hostility in her gaze. There is curiosity, and behind the curiosity, the faint outline of a smile that hasn't fully arrived yet, as though she is deciding how much to share.

The warm amber-to-orange gradient behind her is the colour of late afternoon light over red earth, and it makes her whole composition glow from within. Gold hoops. A kente detail on her chest. This is a portrait of a young woman who has not yet been made small by the world and, judging by the set of her jaw, does not intend to be.