Mr. Griggs, you most likely have oak in your area. Do not use oak leaves, the leaves burn well, produce lots of smoke but the heat produced is to hot and will burn the bees wings.
I buy wood pellets, horse bedding (pine pellets, not oak)in 40 pound bags, cost about $5 bucks. I lite with a hand held propane torch the automatic self start available at local hardware store such as Lowe?s or Home Depot. One 14 ounce can of propane last me a full year.
Beginners seem to have a problem keeping a smoker going, the propane torch, one click start will solve that problem. My smoker 3/4 full of wood pellets last about 8 hours, that is all day because I work about 20 or less hives.
This is one suggestion to consider, there are many methods as mentioned by Iddee such as cotton works well too.