Broken leaf spring.. excuse to lower my ride?

So after replacing a broken sway bar mount, I noticed some metal rattling noises on my truck (2wd, 5lug) and was finally able to pinpoint it to a broken center leaf spring on the driver's side. I did a temporary fix to it to stop it from sliding out and getting caught in the wheel or knocking around the fuel tank, but I am looking for a more permanent fix.

Is it true that you can remove that center leaf to lower the back end? What additional hardware would I need (blocks etc?) Could I level off the front end by doing a ball joint flip? ..or should I just buy a replacement leaf?