In Genesis, what does Noah’s dove bring back to the Ark as evidence of dry land?

In Genesis, Noah’s dove brings an olive leaf back to the Ark as evidence of dry land.

Genesis 8:11 says that the dove returns in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf. Noah understands this as a sign that the floodwaters have receded from the earth’s surface. He sends the dove out once more, and it does not return, suggesting that it has found suitable land and food.

The olive leaf became one of the best-known visual symbols associated with peace, hope, and the end of danger. That symbolism developed beyond the immediate biblical narrative and appears in later Jewish, Christian, European, and international imagery.

The story specifies an olive leaf, not a generic green branch. Artists and popular retellings sometimes show a larger branch or use different foliage for visual effect, but Genesis gives the more precise detail: a freshly plucked olive leaf carried by the returning dove.