The Emerald Cave

We passed many islands as we motored about the Andaman sea, all of them quite beautiful. Several of them had steep cliff faces towering out of the water. These were beautiful in an untouchable sort of way. It would be very difficult indeed to set foot on one of these islands. One island, looked just as inhospitable as any. There were openings in the rock at the water line, and one of these was marked. We dawned our life jackets and entered the cave. By the time I had pushed Angela and her life-jacket 100 feet, the light of the sun was completely hidden. We swam about the same distance again and saw light at the end of the tunnel. When we reached the end we found ourselves nestled in a cozy little tropical nest, with walls towering above on all sides of a small beach.
This warm windless world had attracted many visitors, despite her modest outward appearance. Unique flora, and birds had made homes here and, so said the signpost on the beach, was a temporary storage for pirated loot.
We scanned the beach for some emeralds left behind by the pirates, but didn't find any. We were not disappointed. The beach and protective walls were treasure enough for us. This made it all the more delightful to make a discovery as we returned to the windy world. Our eyes were adjusted to pitch darkness, and most of the light that reached our eyes as we approached the exit was filtered through the blue-green water of the Indian Ocean. Emerald indeed.