In Genesis, the dove brought Noah a freshly plucked olive leaf after the Flood waters began to recede.
Genesis 8:11 says that the dove returned to the ark in the evening with an olive leaf in its beak. Noah understood this as evidence that the waters had subsided from the earth. The detail follows an earlier raven episode and a first dove flight in the same sequence, but it is separate from the question of which bird left first.
The olive leaf became a widely recognized symbol of peace, renewal, and hope. Olive trees can survive difficult conditions and grow in the eastern Mediterranean, where the flood narrative is traditionally situated. The passage itself, however, is making a narrative point about visible dry land rather than presenting a botanical study.
Many paintings show a branch rather than a single leaf, but Genesis specifically describes a leaf. That wording makes “an olive leaf” the precise answer.