Blocked by Leaves

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso

Imagine that the only thing you have to do today is to knit a Maple leaf.  You know what a Maple leaf looks like.  You can reference all manner of photos of them, and even step outside and pick a real specimen for study.  You have needles and yarn, and the will to do the deed.

What you cannot do is pop on over to Ravelry and download a pattern for a Maple leaf, because that would be someone else's leaf, and yours has to be your own.  You also have to knit your leaf in such a way that others can follow your instructions to knit it the very same way, with immediate success.

Would you start with the stem and work up?  Make separate lobes and attach them to a common base?  Where do the increases and decreases go? How lifelike or interpretive will it be?  How will you predict what size it becomes?  Or can you?

Go!

Now don't think I'm complaining: I think this is a GREAT problem to have.  Seriously, if this is my biggest challenge today, I'm clearly living right.  But every once in a while, (usually when I stop doing and start thinking), I realize that I have no experience in doing the thing I have to do.  I've never knit a maple leaf before, and that is no stinkin' excuse.  I have to leaf up and make it happen.  I think I know where to start, but I'm just wondering: 

What would Gentle Readers do?