According to Genesis, the returning dove brought Noah a freshly plucked olive leaf.
Genesis 8:10–11 describes Noah waiting seven days before sending the dove again. This time, the bird returned in the evening with an olive leaf in its beak. Noah understood the sign to mean that the waters had receded from the earth’s surface.
The detail became one of the best-known images associated with the Ark narrative. The olive branch or leaf later gained wider cultural associations with peace, reconciliation, and the end of conflict, although the Genesis passage itself uses it specifically as evidence that vegetation had reappeared above the floodwater.
The story then records another seven-day wait and a final release of the dove. When it did not return, Noah knew that the land was sufficiently dry for life outside the Ark. The leaf, rather than a branch of another named tree, is the specific object in Genesis.