In Genesis, the dove brings an olive leaf back to Noah’s Ark to show that the waters are receding.
Genesis 8:10–11 says Noah waits seven days and sends the dove out again. In the evening, the dove returns with a freshly plucked olive leaf, showing Noah that the water has diminished from the earth. After another seven days, Noah sends the dove out once more, and it does not return.
The olive leaf became a widely recognized symbol of peace, hope, and renewal, although Genesis presents it first as practical evidence about the flood’s condition. The story does not say that the entire land is already dry when the leaf arrives; it says the water has receded enough for vegetation to be found.
A common retelling confuses the olive leaf with a branch. The biblical wording is an olive leaf, and the bird is specifically a dove.