Getting regular + black faces from mesh import regardless of method

Simply put, I am importing a mesh

My issue regards to how the normals behave upon import. What results in happening for me is that some of the faces appear black and can’t change them afterwards. Something is going on with the normals but can’t figure it out.

I’ve tried out recalculating normals in blender inside & out, flipping them, and separating the mesh by vertexes vs faces.
A mesh of leaves. Any ideas anyone?