I heard accounts from locals of the Polillo Islands about an island in their region which you can spot even an hour away from reaching it, not by seeing the island itself, but by seeing a distant lush tree afloat in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the ocean. Slowly, as your boat approaches, you notice the tree being surrounded by the greenery of palm trees, but still towering all over them, I was told. Further on as you get nearer, the tree disappears from view, now totally hid by a thick forest, the rims of which are laced by a thick and long belt of white sand.