Gather fallen leaves up and down your street. Ask your neighbors for permission first. On my street there's only 1 other serious gardener, and she gave permission for me to gather leaves out of the street in front of her house.

Be prepared to endure weird looks from passersby. (After enough years have passed they get used to you.)Answer their questions, because these are teaching moments.

Let the dead leaves sit in a suitable container for about a year. I use wheeled trash cans with holes in the bottom. Allow the rain in, but if there's too much, you may need to turn the container over and dump it out. This actually happened once!

After about a year, enjoy your leaf mold. The top layer may still be just dead leaves, but under that is beautiful black mold. This year I used it under the citrus trees.

It is wonderful stuff, isn't it?
I had a few bags of chopped up leaves stashed behind the garage for a couple years that didn't get used...had a few puncture holes in them which was great for the moisture...and this year they were full of beautiful leaf mold.
Compost is great stuff but leaf mold is lots easier!

I'm the "leaf bandit" in my neighborhood--some strange looks but they're strange people!! I leave them in the bags until I have "green stuff" to cover, and usually have several bags left at the end of the season, and one good full compost half filled with good compost and half filled with good leaf mulch, so I enjoy both. My own leaves I run through my leaf vacuum and cover the garden beds with them, giving me leaf mold and mulch when I plant in the spring.