For a time we traveled within sight of land, a long, green island to the east.

The water continued to subside, leaving him on a green island.

A lush green island sat out there five, maybe six Ks away.

He paused, looking around at the little green island that had been so good to him.

In a green island, far from all men's knowing?

His mind's eye refused to give up the image of the black and green island.

But she, the more fortunate, lived on in her green island.

"When the sun went down behind the green islands in the Sound the sky looked a lot like that," she said.

They stared in silence as green islands drifted slowly past.

The answer is that it once was a green island, but the climate changed, independently of human activities.