A dove returned to Noah with a leaf in the Genesis Ark story.
After the floodwaters began to decline, Noah first sent out a raven. He then sent a dove to discover whether the waters had receded from the ground. The dove initially found nowhere to land and returned to the ark. When Noah sent it out again, it came back in the evening carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf.
A later release of the dove produced no return, which Noah understood as evidence that the land was becoming habitable. The sequence gives the dove a role as a practical sign of changing conditions, not merely as a decorative symbol.
The olive branch or leaf later became a widely recognized symbol of peace. In the biblical passage, however, its immediate meaning is ecological: it showed Noah that vegetation was visible again after the flood.