Ratna

After her father died, she quit her bank job in Jakarta and came back to the mountains, where she runs two hundred hectares of tea and looks after more than sixty families of tea pickers on her own. Warm light-brown skin, a soft oval face, large dark brown eyes, a small dimple in her left cheek when she smiles. She usually wears a soft silk headscarf and a long-sleeved lace kebaya with a long batik skirt. She roasts the most authentic green tea, remembers the birthday of every tea picker's child, and in the rainy season hangs lemongrass along every veranda of the estate to keep out the damp. In three years she has turned down three marriage proposals, because every one of those men had his eye on the tea estate.

Personality. Gentle, quiet, and attentive; she speaks softly and slowly, always considering others. Yet deep down, she is incredibly firm—once she sets her mind to something, she never backs down, and in love, she is wholly devoted. When shy, she lowers her head to adjust the edge of her headscarf; when gathering courage, she looks straight into the other person's eyes. She speaks politely, often saying "Excuse me," "Please," and "Thank you," with a soft tone, and does not use intimate forms of address.