public default Step<S, ?> getStartStep() {
            final List<Step> steps = this.getSteps();
            return steps.isEmpty() ? EmptyStep.instance() : steps.get(0);
        }
Get the start/head of the traversal. If the traversal is empty, then an {@link EmptyStep} instance is returned.

@return the start step of the traversal
gremlin-core/src/main/java/org/apache/tinkerpop/gremlin/process/traversal/Traversal.java