Why is the Gnome logo a foot icon?

Gnome is one of the most complete and well known desktop environments available for Unix and Linux systems.
Its main logo, and for many editions, the icon placed on the main menu, has always been a kind of G made as a foot icon with four fingers.



In the very beginning, when I was experimenting with Gnome 1, I thought it was a nice graphical idea to have a G (reminding Gnome) made as a foot (to remind a gnome by itself).
While this interpretation could be partially correct, the fact that the Gnome icon is a foot is totally random: Miguel De Icaza (founder and former leader of the project) told in a few interviews that there was a not yet used icon, the foot, and that there was not an application in the Gnome desktop to apply such icon too. Nevertheless, the icon was really good and well designed, so they wanted to not waste this piece of art, and since the menu was still missing the icon, they applied to the menu. And hence, to some extent, to the whole project.