Hello, Mr Shoemaker!
On empty and naked soles I have traversed
This lengthy and thorny path
you I have sought unbidden
like Delilah to Samson.
I wish that you make for me a pair of Sandals
Let the soles be stocked with valour and hope
Since they’ll come handy on my voyage
Lace the floor with painted patterns
From life’s many canvases of stages
That it may remind me when the next stage beckons
I do not want a uniform sandal
Paint the right with shades of green and white
That I may see my fatherland when I behold it
Paint the left in rainbow
Let me behold my brothers
From the seven shades
I know of leather sandals
Of rubber sandals; he said
Not of Sandals with soles of valour
But Since that’s what you wish
Let’s get to work

– Akeredolu Tope