Bread & Salt

This work depicts the traditional gesture of welcome, bread and salt offered by a neighbor upon arrival in a new home. While my child opens the door with curiosity and fearlessness, I hesitate, peeking cautiously through the peek hole. The moment contrasts two responses to migration: the child’s openness and ease in embracing the unfamiliar, and the mother’s overthinking, insecurity, and sense of distance in an unfamiliar cultural space.
The illustration reflects the fragile process of negotiating belonging, where hospitality and anxiety coexist at the threshold of a new life.