According to Wikipedia The ZX81’s built-in RF modulator can output a video picture to either a UHF 625-line colour or monochrome television. So monochrome would most definitely be the best way to go.
From the Libretro Docs on EightyOne core:
Colorization works by loading a program prior to loading the game. This program will check if the
Chroma 81 expansion is installed, and, if it is, configures the colors of the ZX81 characters, and
then loads the original game, which runs unaware that it's playing with colors.
Since the EightyOne core can't load arbitrary programs from the file system, the colorization
program and the game must exist in the same file.