In Genesis, the dove brings Noah a freshly plucked olive leaf as evidence that the floodwaters have receded.
The episode appears in Genesis 8:8–11. Noah first sends the dove, but it returns because it cannot find a place to rest. Seven days later, he sends it again. The dove comes back in the evening with an olive leaf in its beak, showing that vegetation has emerged above the water. Noah waits another seven days before sending it out once more; this time, it does not return.
The olive leaf became one of the best-known images associated with the flood narrative. In later art and popular language, a dove with an olive branch often symbolizes peace, reconciliation, or hope. The biblical text itself presents the leaf primarily as practical evidence about the condition of the land.
The detail is sometimes simplified to “an olive branch,” but Genesis specifically describes a freshly plucked olive leaf. That wording distinguishes it from a fig leaf, palm frond, or generic green branch.