import base64
from PIL import Image
import io

def decode_image(encoded_image):
    """Decode the base64 string to bytes"""
    image_data = base64.b64decode(encoded_image)
    # Open the image using PIL
    image = Image.open(io.BytesIO(image_data))
    return image

def encode_image(buffer):
    encoded_image = base64.b64encode(buffer).decode('utf-8')
    return encoded_image