I've often found that has_colors() is deficient, and that you can often do better by just looking at $ENV{TERM} and guessing. start_color() doesn't need has_colors() to return true to work -- try writing some test scripts that do initscr(), start_color(), and see what happens, like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Curses;

my $cid = 12; # Just an arbitrary slot

initscr();
start_color();
init_pair($cid, ::COLOR_BLUE, ::COLOR_BLACK);
$blbk = COLOR_PAIR($cid);
attron($blbk);
addstr(0,0,"Hey");
refresh();
sleep(3);
endwin();
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