Why do animal crossing furniture items appear as leaves? Someone told me there is an explanation for it related to japanese culture but couldn't remember exactly why
2 Answers
Leaves transforming into objects is a cultural reference in Japan. Without going into too much detail, it's a reference to the mythological ability of the tanooki/tanuki (the species which Tom Nook is actually a member of), which supposedly could use leaves to help them transform. This also isn't unique to the tanuki, the kitsune also demonstrates this ability (and possibly other creatures as well).
I've never seen an official explanation for the use of the leaf icon but always inferred that it was because furniture falls from trees. This has always been the case from the original game on the Nintendo 64. You shake a tree and sometimes a furniture leaf will fall down to the ground. In the Game Cube version you can get two of these a day. I'm not sure what the fall rate is on the other editions.
