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Mineh Shin

@iman.mineh

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Always on a healing and learning journey!
Oost west, thuis best~~
📍Groningen 🇳🇱
@souleaf.art
#freepalestine🇵🇸

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Captain, my Captain

Memory...

Old friend of mine,
sailing on a rocking boat,
drifting down the lane.

Turn the wheel,
let the sun take over the days,
the minutes,
the essence of life.

Not a passage,
but a flow—
a current carrying us
wherever we go.

Let’s find new waters,
let’s make new memories.

We’ve been stuck in the Bermuda
for what feels like eternity.
Now it’s time for the cycle
to find its loop,
for the black hole
to bend toward light.

And maybe,
just maybe,
we’ll learn to sail again.

- Souleaf

#captainmycaptain
#seizetheday
#sailaway
#cairokee by @iman.mineh

54

6

2 months ago

A Lekker Year

An expert in turning my world upside down,
all hot air and restless storms,
asking me, like a mischievous Pinocchio,
whether youth is a truth
or simply the most beautiful lie ever told.

A year has passed.
The trees have kept the receipts,
printing seasons onto their branches,
etching time into bark and leaf.
And time, generous and cruel,
has brought both fruit and wind—
things to hold,
things to let go.

Late.
Forever late.
The train left the station long ago,
and still I ride.
Not on electricity or certainty,
but on charcoal and sweat,
on stubborn hope,
on prayers whispered into cold mornings.
The kilometers stretch endlessly,
yet somehow I keep moving.

And the stations—
those places that once felt like wounds,
those destinations I ached for—
became teachers.
Some arrived with knives,
some with open hands.

Madame Lausanne,

woman of the mountains and sunlight,
with your magnificent curls
and your smile large enough to quiet storms.

A Serbian heart wrapped in Swiss grace—
a combination the world forgot to manufacture twice.

Little sister with the spirit of an elder,
steady as a lighthouse,
warm as fresh bread.

You carry reassurance like a second language.

You have taught me resilience
not through speeches,
but through the quiet art of continuing.
May your kindness return to you a thousandfold.

And Miss Hoa Sen,

Vietnam's little Lotus of springtime,

Lady Pancake with the sweetest voice,

arriving always like the fragrance of flowers after rain.

Delicate, yet impossible to break.

Soft, yet powerful enough to reshape a room.

My companion of kitchens and conversations,
the finest chef I have ever known—

not merely because of what you create with your hands,

but because of what you nourish with your presence.

You bloom wherever life plants you.
And somehow,

everyone nearby begins to bloom too.

So here I stand,
twenty-seven years carried by prayers and tears,
old departures and unexpected arrivals.
And spending this birthday with you both
feels like a gentle breeze
crossing a heated desert—
the kind that reminds a weary traveler
that not every miracle arrives loudly.

Thank you girls.

#bestbirthdayever by @iman.mineh

53

7

4 months ago

Next Station

The origin of time
Rhythm and rhyme
Beyond the highest skies
Where nature dissolves into existence

Time-consciousness wandered
Through the unnamed chambers
Of my unseen being

The origin of love
My own self-love
A fragmented story
Of forgotten stations
Along endless railway veins

Smoke climbed through iron patterns
While the announcer declared war
Upon every sleeping cabin

That electric operator—
Oh, how deafening
Those sirens of truth become

Am I here?
Or merely a spectral hallucination
Flickering through existence?

And will the multitude
Ever learn the language of unison?

#nextstation #trainphotography #operator #siren by @iman.mineh

20

0

5 months ago

Round trip

Photo by Rim

Took some time away
Drifted from the noise
Slipped out of the chaos
Chasing quieter joys

Life spins
A ferris wheel running
Round and round, still humming
Endless, yet becoming

Newspapers and a Vespa
All I need on a day
In a German town, I wander
Let the hours drift away

Tourist for a day
Or maybe two, I stay
Riding the Rhein, just crossing
Letting borders fade away

Train rides with a suitcase
Always on the go
Every stop a moment
Every leaving soft and slow

Round trip is ending
But the railway keeps on bending
Leading where I’m meant to
See you soon, unending

#roundtrip #mainz #newspaper #vespaclassic #colorphotography by @iman.mineh

47

2

6 months ago

Peace of Cake 🍰

I learned to bake so that my hands could speak
louder than the voices in my head—
so sugar and spice could turn the bitter inside me
into something almost nice.

So I could tell my mother,
Sit down — this treat is on me,
this cake was made for you.
So I could warm hearts,
show my brother that life can be softer,
that even chaos can pause
around a chocolate cake
on a random holiday
in a noisy house.

I learned to hold fire,
though it kissed my skin more than once.
Burns on my arms, heat in my bones—
yet somehow it quieted the inner arson
that kept trying to consume me,
that hollow hunger
that once made me bones and skin,
a thin ache made of worry and air.

Oh, I have come a long way.

My mother is in a gentler place now.
The noisy house has learned silence.
My brother is well fed.
My father listens more than he yells.
My bones are wrapped in flesh again.
Home is far away—
yet closer than ever.

I learned aprons never escape flour,
that sleeves must always be rolled up for living.
I learned life is not a box of chocolates
but a whole Theobroma cacao—
bitter pod to sweet square,
patient from plant to plate,
depth, steps, devotion.

Yes, Mother, I listened.
Baking since six, cooking since eight,
putting fire down instead of letting it rise.
I faced death a few times,
fearful, weary...
still choosing the roads
no one else dared to take.

I had a choice.
I chose the unchosen.

I wrote new rules
with trembling hands,
fear always lurking in the margins.

Maybe I am a fool ..
but now I am back to books and ink,
back to the place I once abandoned
that never abandoned me.

In flickering rays of hope
I found flour and cream,
friends, chosen family,
roots that remembered my name.

All those days at the supermarket counter,
writing Happy Birthday on strangers’ cakes,
wishing them happy lives—
now I get to celebrate my own.

So yes…
we so damn got this.

-Souleaf

#unchosen #wegotthis💪 #becomingextraordinary #dreamon #cakes by @iman.mineh

26

0

8 months ago

Rostock Rose 🌹

She is not a florist’s rose.
Not plucked, cut, or dressed for display.

Not tucked behind glass,
not kept in vases for secret admiration,
not watered in drops that do not feed her soul.

She is wild.
A rose with thorns,
rooted in the open field,
meant to shine in daylight,
meant to turn gloom to gold.

She is not for fleeting pleasure,
not for hidden intimacy,
not for hands that only admire and abandon.

She doesn't wait to be picked.
If she is wanted, it better be by a farmer

Who would,

Nourish her soil,
tend her roots,
and protect her land.

Do not pluck her to carry indoors
or cage her petals in shallow walls.

She belongs to the wind,
to the sun,
to the wide, open field.

She blooms on her own terms
and that is how she shines.

-Souleaf

#wildrose #imnotwhathappenedtome #redroses #thornsarenecessary #lettherebelight by @iman.mineh

15

0

8 months ago

Home within my soul

I am Souleaf—
the leaf I first embraced,
the one I wrote my dreams on at sixteen,
still resting back home.

Now I’m far from what I’ve always called home,
yet home lives here,
quiet and steady,
within my own soul.

I’m starting a new chapter now—
a stormy, yet calmer version of me,
slowly, yet surely,
becoming.

Here we go.

- Souleaf 🍀

#amsterdamcity #homewithinmysoul #newchapter #letsgo by @iman.mineh

19

0

8 months ago

Choosing this room came from
a sum of small things;
price, timing, location,
maybe even destiny.

But this drawing
it called to me louder than logic.
Whoever sketched it,
whoever breathed in this space before me;
I carry you in quiet gratitude.

This woman feels like my mirror somehow;
the birds in flight,
the black top,
dark locks falling free,
her chin lifted
while branches root into her skin
like she belongs to both sky and soil.

The room is painfully white,
yet these black lines
leave a trace of life
I’ll always be thankful for.

My housemate calls it creepy,
but I call it kin.

A Gemini, maybe—
split between worlds,
grounded and flying.
Whoever you are, artist of this wall,
thank you.

- Souleaf

#roominspiration #branchesandsky #drawing #myself #goodgoodbye by @iman.mineh

15

2

9 months ago

Rhythm of chaos breathing underneath.
I smell relief, cooked slow, set for a feast.
Let's eat!

-Souleaf

#preheatingtheoven
#eatfresh
#hotbloodedyouth #lastdecember #justmight by @iman.mineh

66

13

9 months ago

Good Goodbye

I say goodbye to old ways
faded and frayed
roads I wandered astray

Goodbye to bad choices
the noise, the voices
the not-me that lingered too long

Goodbye to rootless soil
and falling leaves cracking on the ground
to the steps I once took unaware

And the bench
the bench that held me
cradled my doubts, my sorrows, my fears
it is emptied now

I leave it behind
like fallen leaves drifting in the wind
silent, still, gone

I stand
whole at last
and bid you adieu

- Souleaf

#goodgoodbye #adieu #굿굿바이 #riseup by @iman.mineh

17

0

a year ago

Ankunft

Breathe
slow, yet sharp,
the air tastes new,
the ground hums true.

Steps are building,
guts grow firm,
routes unfold,
the unknown turns.

Cities shimmer,
climates spin,
each corner whispers,
“come within.”

In the land of the strong,
we are tempered steel,
fear walks behind,
but courage takes the wheel.

The sea stirs,
sails tighten fast,
the map is trembling,
the compass swings past.

Adrenaline sings
in every breath,
but caution leans
against the edge.

Each step is risk,
each risk a spark,
the unknown waits—
we walk toward the dark.

-Souleaf

#bremen #boats #landcruiser #journeyoflife by @iman.mineh

34

1

a year ago

Departure

A new path unfolds, the winds rearrange
Fear and hope in a trembling exchange.
Anticipation wrapped in quiet fright,
Tears of joy, and cries through the night.

I weep for what’s gone, for hands I can’t hold,
For the stories unfinished, the warmth gone cold.
Yet I face the road, my back to the lens,
Carrying roots — not chains, but amends.

The clock strikes loud, my breath runs thin,
The tide is shifting deep within.
But what is meant to stay will stay
And when it’s time, the ship sails anyway.

Not alone — with echoing feet,
Grief and grace in measured beat.
This ache, a companion, not a wall
A shadow that walks, but doesn’t stall.

Life winds forward, a tunnelled ride,
Darkness close, but light inside.
I whisper to time as I steady my pass:
“This too, like all storms — this too shall pass.”

-Souleaf

#thoughtoftheday💭 #departure #feelings #waterfall by @iman.mineh

33

1

a year ago