Possible combinations:
To find the total number of ways in which 5 balls of different colors can be distributed among 3 persons, we need to consider all possible combinations.

Step 1: Distributing one ball to each person
Since each person should get at least one ball, we start by distributing one ball to each person. This leaves us with 2 balls to distribute among the 3 persons.

Step 2: Distributing the remaining 2 balls
We can distribute the remaining 2 balls in the following ways:

- Person 1 gets both balls
- Person 2 gets both balls
- Person 3 gets both balls
- Person 1 gets 1 ball and Person 2 gets 1 ball
- Person 1 gets 1 ball and Person 3 gets 1 ball
- Person 2 gets 1 ball and Person 3 gets 1 ball

Calculating the total number of combinations:
To calculate the total number of combinations, we need to consider the number of ways each step can be done.

Step 1:
Since each person can only get one ball, there are 3 possible ways to distribute the balls in this step.

Step 2:
- If Person 1 gets both balls, there is only 1 way to do this.
- If Person 2 gets both balls, there is only 1 way to do this.
- If Person 3 gets both balls, there is only 1 way to do this.
- If Person 1 gets 1 ball and Person 2 gets 1 ball, there are 2 ways to do this.
- If Person 1 gets 1 ball and Person 3 gets 1 ball, there are 2 ways to do this.
- If Person 2 gets 1 ball and Person 3 gets 1 ball, there are 2 ways to do this.

Total combinations:
To find the total number of combinations, we multiply the number of ways each step can be done.

Total combinations = (Number of ways in Step 1) * (Number of ways in Step 2)
= 3 * (1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2)
= 3 * 9
= 27

Therefore, the total number of ways in which 5 balls of different colors can be distributed among 3 persons so that each person gets at least one ball is 27, which is not among the given answer options.