Hi there,
The Featured Content option is a feature added to the theme by the Jetpack plugin. You’ll need to have that plugin active on your site, and connected to a WordPress.com account, to be able to use that feature.
https://jetpack.com/support/featured-content/
The self-hosted version of this theme does not include pre-set color palettes like the WordPress.com version, nor can you set custom background color; you can only set a background image.
To change colors for the theme as a whole you’ll need to use custom CSS or create a child theme. Font color for the content of individual posts and pages can be changed from within the editor, as @barrett1308 mentioned.
To change the fonts on your site you’ll need to use a plugin, like Easy Google Fonts or similar.